Published on 12, July, 2020
Good afternoon everyone,
I'm completely new here so please bear with me. My partner and I were told three days ago that our little boy is highly likely to have ASD. He is younger than school age so we have a portage worker monitoring our child and he will start school in September. We are due to have a gp appointment in the next week to be referred to a paediatrician.
I am feeling such a bag of different emotions; relief predominantly as it's something we have suspected for a long time. Guilt, could I have helped him more all this time? Burnout, I just want to organise everything now so his transition into school is super smooth. Fear, I want him to have lasting friendships and discover passions and have a world around him that let's him be his authentic self.
Could someone please tell me if this is all normal. No one is guaranteed an easy ride in life, I suppose its just a parents way that we want to click our fingers and make everything perfect.
I would so appreciate anyone with an autistic child or even more so, if a person with ASD could give me any advice how to be the best mummy I can be to my son. My husband and I are reading every day and following our sons lead with play. Any and all advice would be eternally appreciated.
Thank you so much in advance,
Mummy to a rockstar/super hero/astronaut/pirate <3
Hi NAS73291,
I'm sorry to hear that you've been feeling some of these emotions. It's really understandable and you're not alone in this.
You may find the following page our website useful:
https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/diagnosis/post-diagnosis-support
You may also like to contact our Parent to Parent service who offers emotional support to parents and carers of children or adults with autism. This service is confidential and run by trained parent volunteers who are all parents themselves of a child or adult with autism .
You contact the team on 0808 800 4106. Please leave a message and the team will call you back as soon as possible at a time that suits you, including evenings and weekends. Alternatively you can use contact the team via web form: https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/help-and-support/parent-to-parent
All the best,
Chloe Mod