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Well two of ours have severe learning disabilities and go to schools for children with 'severe and complex' learning needs (many of them have autism or other stuff mixed in with the 'simple' learning disability stuff which makes them 'complex'. 'Complex' is often a term which is used alongside 'autism' in their/our world. As for 'profound', the only way I have heard it being used in a developmental sense is for children/people who have not developed/will not develop beyond around 12 months in age in a given area. I am not an expert, but that is how our children's paediatrician explained it to me. Would like to know what others think.

when I worked with people with learning disabilities - profound was used to describe the most severely affected - no speech and very limited communication/understanding, unable to attend to self care. no sense of danger - usually severely physically handicapped I assume CAMHS have diagnosed her autism - and am wondering if the judge saw this diagnosis? may be more helpful at the moment as it is a concrete diagnosis - most people know about autism and may help judges etc understand her difficulties and find safe placements for her rather than punish

Sorry, Pear Tree, not really up to speed with Blossom's diagnosis - is this a brand new diagnosis? Does the judge know about it? Does she actually have an autistic spectrum diagnosis as such? Or are they calling it this and then telling you that means autism? Reason I ask is that there is an autism act which puts the onus on local authorities in particular to provide services for people with autism. It's the reason that round here, for example, you can automatically get a free merlin annual pass for your autistic child, but they have a lottery for passes for everyone else. Autism really counts - so you need to have an autism diagnosis. And if they are telling you she has this disorder, well, does it count as autism for the purposes of the act? Both of mine are probably on the spectrum (one diagnosed PDA and the other being assessed for autism) and neither flaps or drones. Girls usually behave very differently from the typical asd descriptions you read about, which are largely based on boys. Email me if you want to chat about it.