This is one post that I have been putting off for months. That’s probably one reason why I’m just now updating my blog again after so long. So here it goes I guess I will get right to it.
We happen to have the best little critter family out there at least that’s what I think. I didn’t think much of our little critter family, you know that we were different or anything. But one day when we were in visiting our new Pediatrician she asked me about Lil’ Monster and if she was talking yet. I said no off handed and shrugged my shoulders like it was no big deal but to the Pediatrician it was a big deal because at that time Lil’ Monster was already approaching the three and a half mark. Her concern made me to start thinking more about it. One day while we were out visiting with our neighbors – one of which happened to work with special needs kids at the time – I asked her what she thought of our Lil’ Monster not talking yet. She too suggested that it would be a good idea to have her looked at and get her some speech therapy help. For Papa Bear and I that was enough concern from two great people that know what their talking about and have Lil’ Monster’s best interests in mind when they told us they thought she would benefit from help. That was when I decided it was time to look into finding out how I could go about getting her some help.
Our Pediatrician first referred us to our local hospital and their speech therapist. At the time of the referral Silly Girl was also referred to the speech therapist at the hospital. At the end of their assessment they agreed that our girls would benefit from speech therapy help. But the price to have it done by the hospital made it the wrong option to go through them.
Back to the drawing board I went to find a place that would help our girls.
It was several weeks after that initial assessment and I was still looking for help when I received a flyer from Silly girl’s preschool advertising a preschool readiness assessment being put on by our county so the parents for our area could see how close our kids were to being ready for Kindergarten.
After I called the county and made arrangements for the Little Terrorizer to go stay with grandma I took the girls for what I hoped was another assessment so the girls could finally get some help. It ended up being the right place for Silly Girl but the wrong place for Lil’ Monster but they did send me in the right direction to get her started.
I finally had a place to turn to for Lil’ Monster.
I gave our local Regional Center a call and started the process on the way for her. Then about two weeks before she turned three – the age in which she moves from being part of the Regional Center to the County – we received the formal diagnoses that she is mildly autistic.
That initial diagnoses and denial was the hardest time of my life, at least since my gorgeous critters were born. I just couldn’t believe it and thought they were crazy and they saw I child in her that we have never seen. And in reality they did. But for us she was just our beautiful little girl that is always so curious and into everything. But they saw the little girl that didn’t have words or didn’t know what to say, has some problems knowing what are acceptable social skills and other signs of being autistic. Once we were able to get over the initial shock and disbelief (and finding a great friend’s shoulder to cry on) we embraced her diagnoses and were ready to find out all that we could do to do our part to help her.
Since she was diagnosed back in June – eight months ago – she has grown and excelled beyond our wildest dreams. She has so many words now, is using sentences and and even answering questions when we ask her and she can tell us when she wants something too.
I still remember that day back at the end of September when we were camping near Lake Tahoe when out of the blue she looked at me and said, “MOMMY” for the very first time ever. I grabbed her in my arms and gave her the biggest bear hug ever and then and there I knew everything really was going to be all right!
no shock this time just relief and Silly Girl was diagnosed with ADHD inattentive. Both of these diagnosis came just days apart and neither one of them came as a shock to us.
