Relax!

A couple of months back I think I was worried that diagnosis was taking too long while still being very aware that, for us, the process of assessment and the path towards diagnosis was put in place much more swiftly for us because a) we already suspected ASD and weren't afraid to raise it with with the health worker and b) because that same health worker has been amazing in referring him to audiology, the speech and language therapist (who was herself amazing) and organising the in-nursery assessment all within a few short months. For some people this process can take a lot, lot longer.

It wasn't enough for me though as I backflipped and somersaulted through denial and acceptance, yes he is, no he isn't, is, isn't, is, isn't, aaaaagh! I just wanted to know. But more recently, as some semblance of sanity kicked in, or what approximates sanity for me, I started to take in some of the course material I have been learning on SK124 along with the stories I was reading on other parent's blogs along with first hand accounts from people writing about their experience of autism, and started to calm down a bit.

It doesn't matter one iota if we get a diagnosis now, at age three, because they can sellotape a label to his head that says "PDD-NOS" or "HFA - Handle With Care" but we won't have a clue what sort of thirteen year old the three year old will become until, well, until he's thirteen which was exactly the point made in the comment I quoted below.

I decided that it's silly to stress over labels and diagnosis, all that's good for is getting him help in the classroom and they are already doing that sans-label. It's also entirely unneccesary to feel that I have to coax him into our world when it's clearly so much more fun in his world.