Hi all,
I wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience, and thus some advice. My son is two and a half. Just before his second birthday his speech regressed to where he basically lost all ability to speak. There are a number of other things but that was the biggest red flag. Since then, we've seen specialist through the NHS and privately and they all have told us we are dealing with mild to moderate autism. However, he won't be fully diagnosed until he is older. We've had advice from a speech and language therapist and in the past 6 months his language has progressed really well. He can say Mummy now which he had not previously managed.
Anyway, I suppose I feel like we are in no man's land at the moment. There is still that small part of my brain that thinks he'll just grow out of this in time. I keep getting told stories about kids who didn't speak until they were 3 and don't have autism. I know the speech thing is just one aspect of his challenges. That small part that thinks this is just an embarrassing misunderstanding is a very, tiny sliver, but it is there.
Additionally, I feel like I don't know quite what to do with "mild autism." What does that mean for us? I feels like it if it were another physical ailment it would mean "chronic but not life threatening so you're in a way, on your own. We focus on life threatening."
Anyway, we won't really know until he has a formal diagnosis and he won't have that started for a while. I just feel like we are in a weird holding pattern. Like we've been told he has autism but it's not somehow "official" yet and no one will really commit to telling us what potential outcomes we could see play out for our son.
It's feels a really awkward place to be in emotionally and practically but I suppose mostly just from an emotional stand point and adjusting as a family and as a mother to this new reality.
Is there anyone with a similar experience? How did you approach it?
Would love to hear what you have to say.
G
