This is the first of hopefully many posts. I've wanted to start a blog for some time but have been too busy or a bit too nervous to write about personal things for others to read! But the time has come. Hopefully this will first of all keep people updated about what's going on with us and secondly will also help to clear my head of the clutter that is accumulating there!
A lot has been going on with us recently, a lot we've been worried about mainly concerning our son, Sam. He is 3 next week and is a lively, lovely, bright and happy little boy. However, he is currently undergoing assessments for developmental delays with his communication plus other traits/behaviours he has. It's likely that he is going to be diagnosed sometime in 2010 with ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder).
Sam is non verbal at the moment with little understanding of language and communicates basic needs by taking our hands and putting them on what he wants. It's so frustrating for both him and us when we can't figure out what he wants so we are going to start to try signing with him and using picture flash cards. Although he's not had a diagnosis yet, we are pretty sure of the outcome and are still trying to come to terms with it. It can be like a knife to the heart to see how different he is from other children his age in terms of what he can't do. But he can do an awful lot too. He is funny, sneaky, cheeky, smiley, fearless, runs like the wind and is the best leaper off the sofa that I have ever seen! :)
Autism can be a difficult thing for me to talk about sometimes and not a topic easily brought up in conversation so I'm hoping that I can relieve some of the stress by writing about it instead. I apologise to any friends/family reading this with whom we've not talked about it before but we may be needing your moral support this year.
Well I have rambled on enough for one post! Thanks for reading.
Having met Sam a couple of times I never would have thought of him as being autistic. As it happens our youngest grandchild, Mia, aged 3 also doesn't communicate, or at least she doesn't talk. I don't think she is autistic though. She is certainly not deaf as she will willingly point out objects in a picture book when asked to and she doesn't seem to have linguistic problems as she can recognise the letters of her name and even pronounce them - she just won't talk! Maybe when she starts nursery this year she will want to communicate with the other children. Anyway we hope all goes well for Sam this year.
ReplyDeletePeter & Joyce K
Laura, I just wanted to say that I think it's very cool that you are starting a blog. I used a blog to work through severe postpartum depression after Andrew was born and, although I have since taken it down, it was so helpful for me to have a place to write and communicate with people about what was going on. Some things are really hard to talk about but you still need to get them out there and let people know what is happening.
ReplyDeleteI know we can't do much practically to help you guys out, but know that you've got some moral support from across the pond.
Jenny
This might be of interest Laura http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8436236.stm
ReplyDeletePeter K