My daughter (now almost 3) was diagnosed with Autism, about 11 months.
Glad we pushed and pushed.. we knew something was wrong but the doctors said she had "global development delay".. bullshit.. she was different, and I knew it.. I took her private and they told me what I knew.
She is getting lots of help now and is improving..(I'm really glad I pushed and pushed so we got her diagnosed early.. some kids don't get diagonosed till they are a lot older. Early intervention is the key...)
Its hard work, for all of the family, but I guess you just get on with it and do what you can to help them lead a normal life as possible.
Stuart, my wife and I went on a "more than words" course. I think it originally was developed in the USA. Might be worth checking out. We learnt quite a bit from it.
My wife has been to lots of "Pecs" courses, and our daughter is now communicating to us through the use of her picture cards. Its amazing, it might sound very trivial, but for her to at least be able to communicate with us makes so much difference!
Here's a pic of her.. Her name is Eloise..
The more people who know about autism the better.
Im seriously getting fucked off having to explain to people that she 'might' not be a genius, or an artist etc etc. (why do most people think autistic children have special skills?)
Austism is very different from child to child. Thats why they call it the "austistic spectrum"... anyway.. If you do feel that your young one is different, dont hesistate, get them checked out. Or just look at a few videos of autistic children on youtube... thats actually how I knew Eloise had it.. I watched some videos, and I thought.. MY GOD, thats my daughter.. the kids were acting in the same way, flapping their fingers, same blank expressions etc etc.. I cried for hours.. I never slept all night.
i told my wife the next morning.. we both got really upset, we both knew deep down, but we just kept saying she was "just different" and i guess didn't want to face up to the facts that there was something severely wrong...
Blimey.. I never meant to post all that.. but anyway.. Sharing info and your experiences about your childrens problems helps me deal with it..
thanks for reading!