Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, I am a 28yr old mom to a 2 yr old boy. He is just beautiful..exhausting...but very beautiful. Since about 1.5yo, I had feelings that there was something different about him. We have only had private sitters since his dad and I both work full time and he did not do well at all in the daycare setting. Long story short, I researched autism and he fell under every category, by my opinion of course. We immediately began working with the program through the school but its very limited. A special education teacher comes out to our home twice a month and a behavior analyst once a month but they are unable to diagnose. Today we finally had our development appointment with the physican at the developement center at the childrens hospital and our son was diagnosed with Autism.
Many Many Emotions were felt today. Even though you speculate, having a health care professional confirm is a whole other feeling.
I am here on this forum because Its a start. I am not very educated about ASD and I would like to hear from other people who have similar experiences. The meltdowns, the aggressiveness, being unsure if youll be able to complete tasks in public, no speech etc.
I think it different when children are diagnosed to when adults are diagnosed. It was a huge relief for me that there is something 'official' happening. I wasn't making it up, I wasn't just being plain awkward, I wasn't just being a wet blanket growing up. There were official reasons. So it a relief when finally diagnosed. For a child, he will be happier once you have worked out parenting skills with him. You will find out in time what are his triggers and learn to avoid them by saying it in a way don't make him angry. It a learning curve for you both but at least now you have a diagnosis so you can begin to assess things for yourselves. He can't tell you how it affects him. That will still be like that all the way through may be. I still can't tell you how it affects me. I can repeat the phrases said to me at the diagnosis and with a little bit more understanding 15 month down the line. But I can't actually tell you how it affects me. Just hope those who are around me realise now there is a reason. I a good network of people around at the moment I don't have agrression and meltdowns to what written here. I do get angry but not aggression. It a tight knot anger as i explained to my occupational thereapist the other week and go very cold with it even though am warm. I do have tears and ashamedly in public sometimes when too much but don't get go into the full rage thing. You might have to do some research on here to find some answers. But hey at least you have something definate now. It was suggested to me by a psychologist when I refered myself for cognitive Behavioural Therapy. She did a detailed history and had no inkling what so ever. She even specialist in Asperger's and that why I was sent to her, not that I knew that at the time. At least somone finally heard me but did help i was being supported by what you may think as a suprising source of support. It meant feelings were finally being untangled into words so could take them to the history gathering.
Things do look up because you know that there is a reason.