Published on 12, July, 2020
My name is Susie, my 8yr old daughter has autism and was diagnosed 2 years ago, she has 2 older brothers neither of which are on the spectrum.
I've been through it all with the heartbreak of diagnosis to eventually accepting the fact that my daughter is different, and loving her all the more for those differences. It's a hard road at times but I would not change her for the world.
My daughter is in a mainstream primary school but spends half her day in the learning centre (special needs school) where she needs one to one supervision all day. She has speech but it is limited and there's a lot of repeating whats been asked but not knowing how to answer, routines are extremely important as I'm sure every parent on here will be familiar with. She gets very anxious and upset and self harm at times (thankfully not as much as she used too). I'm looking forward to hearing other peoples experiences and joining in discussions, and also be interesting to hear from people with daughters on the spectrum or they themselves are on the spectrum.
Hi Amy thankyou for your comment, it's very interesting to hear from you and although you say you struggle face to face with people ,you are certainly very articulate from what you just said , I would love my daughter to be able to communicate as well as you do through writing when she is your age.
At the moment she is reading age 5 standard and sometimes struggles to remember certain word so books have to be re read at school, she is doing a lot better than a few years ago when she couldn't read at all and I honestly can't see her ever being able to. She was very stressed at school and lots of meltdowns and self harm, although that has lessened but recently in the run up to christmas she had scratched herself a lot at school, just to noisy not the usual routine in her class, although she went back to the learning centre(special needs) and had a bit of relaxing time it's not easy as you know.
She does use picture exchange comunication and it certainly does help, but it can't say everything for her, she has a home -school diary So I Can read everyday what she's been doing and how she's been, because a lot of the timeshe can't tell me herself. It is so frustrating for her.
That would be great if you could tell me some apps you use for communication, I want to encourage her to talk but anything that would help with communication would be great.
i am glad u are at a college that you feel is helping, I don't think there is enough understanding of ASD by schools and colleges.
susie