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New here, not new to Autism

Room

I don't even know where to begin, I just feel like I need to talk to people who understand.

I didn't know what Autism was until my eldest daughter was diagnosed, she is 16 now and doing very well, she was diagnosed at age 4 and she is at the higher end of the spectrum and had lots of early intervention which I am sure is why she has progressed so well.

While she was being diagnosed I read, read and read some more about Autism and came to the conclusion that I myself probably am on the spectrum too, but we just got on with life and I didn't think about it to much.

I had another two daughters one (who is 12) I have no worries with, the other, I just don't know what to think about her, she is 7 now and has always been hard work, but right now I am wondereng if she may have Aspergers, it didn't occur to me before as she talked fairly early, again I just kinda live with it and help her as best I can.

I now have another daughter who is 2 on Monday,  from 15 months I knew she was not progressing normally,  having been through it with my eldest I knew I needed some early intervention so took her to the speech and language services.  Cut to the chase, yesterday I got her report back from a home visit they did, to sumerise they say "daughter 4 (don't really want to write her name) presents with social communication and interation difficulties. She also presents with a significant language delay" so I can only assume that one day she will be diagnosed too.

I just feel, I dunno just seeing it on paper kinda upsets me, though it's nothing I wasn't expecting.  Also one of my main reasons for writing this post is for some other peoples experiences.  Now I know I have my eldest that is diagnosed but my gut instint is that my youngest is not as high functioning and that kinda scares me as I don't know what to expect, which sounds kinda odd since I know all about Autism.  They are both so different I can't really imagine what Daughter 4 is going to be like, will she ever talk? I can't imagine having a daughter that never learns, daughter1 started talking aged 4.

Anyways thats it really, feel a little bit better just writing it out, I don't have people to talk to that really get it, thats why I came here.

  • hi - welcome to the site. Those of us who have children on the spectrum or who have asd themselves do know a lot about it.  It strikes me that the person I undestand the most with asd is my son who's now an adult.  So we learn about autism then we tailor that knowledge to our child because autism affects individuals in different ways + to different degrees.  Sorry if I'm being long-winded.  You say you're worried about how your youngest will progress.  You remember your HF daughter at that age + can see differences in development.  It's difficult to know how the little one will progress, but progress she will with help from her family who understand the condition well + with a school that can cater for children with autism.  I remember saying that I wanted my son to talk.  My son didn't speak till he was 5 + then he sd a short phrase!   He could read + write to a degree a couple of yrs before that + understand certain words/phrases.  His pronounciation was poor but his speech therapist was great.  He developed yr on yr + is still doing so.  He is going forwards, not stagnating or going backwards.  He's not aspergers.  He has quality of life.  And I think that's really the point.  Nobody can predict the future, but we all search for answers to things that are important to us.   You're so well equipped to help her so she will come on.  Just somewhat differently perhaps.    bw