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 my daughter was diagnosed at 6 she is now 8 , and up until she was 4and a half there was no symptoms of ASD at all she was for want of a better word a normal little girl non stop chatting , questions and full of fun , then 1day she completely shut down stopped talking altogether stopped eating and went into herself it was terrible we didn't know what was wrong! Anyway she had a stay in hosp and they said had she been investigated for having ASD which she does , the whole thing was horrendous and in someways felt like a bereavement as she was not the same girl.
I know exactly how you feel it's such a hard time, I am blessed to have 2 children that are not on the spectrum but then I very blessed to have my daughter as well I love her to bits and now I've come to accept it things are a lot easier. She is the way she and I think once you learn to deal with things and get the proper help in nursery (if she's in nursery) things might get easier.
Once you get a diagnosis you can start reading up on things and also thing can be put on place in schools and nursery for your daughter , my daughter has a SEN in her school with her all day and its a great help and also necessity as she needs supervision constantly, the diagnosis helps greatly in getting extra help for your child.
the worst part by far is waiting on the diagnosis and once you have it you will feel relief bu also a lot of other feelings, I would say take your time do things at your own pace, when my daughter was diagnosed I was given numbers of local autism society's to talk to but I wasnt ready and waited a good few months before doing so.
Are you waiting for process to start or are you going through it now?
hope this hes in some way.
susie