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.