Hi,

I've posted this in the immigration section, but thought I'd post here as well in case someone who has already got PR who doesn't visit the immigration system sees it here.

We received our medicals a few weeks ago and have them set for 3 June. During our wait for PR our son has been diagnosed with high funtioning autism (Aspergers). He receives no medical intervention (speech therapy, occupational therapy, physio etc) and does not have a statement of education. We've been home educating for a year, but prior to that he was in mainstream school and his IEP's (Individual Education Plan) were school action only and were focused on him improving his hand writing and remembering his daily school timetable. Most of the time to meet him you would not notice there was anything wrong with him - unless he was in the middle of a melt down! He is a normal boy who can hold conversations etc, he is just a little socially awkward at times.

I've got a letter from his paediatrician which states that he receives no intervention. I've also got out copies of his old school IEP's which show that he had no special one to one carer etc. Is there anything else you could recommend that we should take to the medical with us?

I'm so scared that we are going to get turned down because of his diagnosis, even though he will cost Canada no money at all in terms of health care related to his autism. If he did go to school there he would not need one to one help, but I'm planning on home educating through to the end of high school.

Is there anyone out there who has received PR who has a child with high funtioning autism - if so how did you approach the medicals?

Any advice would be appreciated ..... though I fear the dream may be coming to an end??

I can't answer the immigration medicals part - but this thread may be of interest.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...autism+stepnek

I think Autism is like a ladder. There are many steps where you can get off.

My children are all Dyslexic, each is worse than the its older sibling, my last had many problems, social, learning etc.

He was diagnosed as profoundly dyslexic, we were told in the UK he would NEVER be able to read or write.

I have had problems all of my life with spelling. I am Dyslexic as is my wife. I also have several other idiosyncrasy's, I am often described as "a bit of a character".

We had him tested for Autism, my wife suggested that as a comparison I be tested as well.

You can see where this is going, I scored far higher for Autism than he did.

Don't condemn a child to a LABEL, its so easy to do so, and if the child knows it, that may well limit them. I knew I was different from so many other people, but then I was brought up to believe that we are all different, and being different is not a disadvantage.

My Youngest, can now read and write after the teaching was adapted to his way of learning.

Thanks for the replies

Just out of interest MB-Realtor, how did CIC respond when you had your medicals done? Did they want more information about your son?

I've just seen your reply, so sorry for the long delay.

While I was a reccie tour to Manitoba, I told one of the MB Trade people about my son, he said that may be a problem with Immigration, as ANY disability will throw up red flags to them. So he suggested I talk to the local (MB) immigration people, well within 2 hours I was sitting before the Manitoba Provincial Minister for Immigration, she was very help full and suggested a specialist local school "The Laureate Academy" (I later found out that her son was a pupil there , though she never told me at the time) which specializes in teaching the best way for the child, rather than for the teacher.

So by the next morning I was having a tour of the school and a talk with the principle.

I left Manitoba with a personal letter from the Minister saying they had looked at my sons situation and were satisfied that there would be no problem with us settling in MB as this school was available here. I also had a letter of blessing from MB Trade. These two letters accompanied my application for PR in November of 96, along with a educational psychiatrists report on my son, 4 months latter without an interview or any further correspondence our PR papers arrived in the post.