Hi Im Catherine and mum to Jack who has just turned four. We started our journey early last summer because my son would not self feed and we were referred to a speech and language team, we also had delayed speech and delayed walking. after seeing the speech and language therapist twice she recommended having some development assessments to check where jack was at. We had two sessions over 7 months and after the second session they did recommend a social and communication assessment. Autism sounded like such a scary word but not one I am unfamiliar with as other family members have autism its just that i felt crushed when I heard that. Acceptance has been a big part of it but I am not such what I am accepting when a diagnosis is still 10 months away. i just wish we had been added to the list a year ago and maybe I would be a little clearer on what we are dealing with.
Jack does self feed now but it was all down to him and speech and language were not much help to us really and also some days are a struggle we are getting there.
His language comes on every day but I can see that compared to his peers hes behind in those skills.
I am hoping with Jack starting school and if any needs are identified this might help in the assessment being carried out sooner rather than later. I hope after a diagnosis be it autism or not I hope as a family we can move on and learn about whatever it is we have to deal with every day.