Published on 12, July, 2020
My name is Laryssa I am the mother of a wonderful boy named Rafael. Sorry to be bothering you, but I don't know who to turn to. I write this with tears in my eyes and a huge despair in my heart. I am writing to you to share my extreme concern about my son Rafael ability to learn and life skill .
I can clearly see in my son's life how much he is struggling with his limitations in many things. Despite your great effort to hide his deficiencies and difficulties, I know how much we suffer. Rafael has learning disability (Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and Dysgraphia) and signs of autism.
We as parents clearly see that our son Rafael has an autism spectrum or another hidden disability. Rafael has struggling at school and his recent scores is a concern for our family. He is 15 years old and he has very low self esteem and no confidence and it is impacting not only his life but his family life too.
Unfortunately we see that Rafael is not ready for his adult life .As parent we feeling lost and seeking for help before his situation get worse. I would like some support to help me get specialists to see my son and take some tests. I have a lot of day-to-day information about the difficulties and distress that I believe the specialists should know about.
After a year and a half on the waiting list we saw a doctor at **on ** and were attended by Dr. **. The doctor mentioned that he saw threats of autism in Rafael, but he didn't complete the diagnosis with autism, which left me disappointed. I believe I am well aware of my child's needs and that they may not be evident on a one-day observation, but would be devastating for the rest of his life if not taken care of properly.
Since year 7 I have been showing my son's difficulties with the Senco . But unfortunately I feel discriminated against for not speaking English well. I send a lot of emails that are never answered, I feel left out. The damage to my child's life can be irreparable. Please I beg you for help, I can't stand to see my son suffering locked in a room in his lonely world anymore. Rafael is a very polite and respectful boy, I think that's why people find it difficult to see his hidden deficiencies. But as a family see that Rafael has a hidden disability. Thank you very much for your attention.
Dear NAS74539, thank you for sharing with the online community and I'm sorry to hear that your family is going through so much. If you were interested in finding out if Rafael is on the autism spectrum, you may find it useful to have a private diagnosis if possible. It is important the professional you see has experience of autism spectrum disorders. You can find details of diagnostic services on our Autism Services Directory in the Assessment and diagnosis section: https://www.autism.org.uk/directory.
You may 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 can find further information about the service and an online enquiry form here: https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/help-and-support/parent-to-parent.
At the moment our Parent-to-Parent is temporarily closed due to a high volume of calls. Please check the information in the link above to find out more. Once the service reopens it will be announced on that page.
I hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Anna Mod
* Note: Forgive me for the mistakes in English I used the Google translator to help me.