She’s seven…. Surely given that the diagnosis is so late that would mean her symptoms aren’t so severe?
My son has the most severe type of autism plus a global developmental delay and we were told by a nurse that something was very wrong with him (he was one years old).
He would violently rock his body back and forth, flap his arms like a bird and walk on tiptoes. He would line up his cars and spin in circles. He had violent meltdowns. On one occasion multiple neighbours knocked on my door about the screaming.
I cried for a solid 2 weeks after the diagnosis. I had cared for an autistic child when I was younger and absolutely hated it.
My partner had a breakdown. I won’t go into specifics - but it was bad and I called the Police & ambulance.
My son was completely non verbal and had no receptive language.
Our paediatrician told us that sometimes children grow out of it and he just said we had to get him out of his own world and into ours.
I was later told by his speech therapist to adjust our expectations as to what his speech may look like in the future. I found a new speech therapist.
My son is now talking. He’s toilet trained. He plays team sports. He plays Roblox like his much older cousins and he likes crafts and Legos. He’s stopped lining up his cars. He enjoys getting involved in school activities and spoke at an assembly - which shocked us. He’s kind, he’s funny - he tries to make us laugh.
I gave up my career to care for him and I think that has paid off. We are at the point where some people don’t believe he’s autistic and think I’ve made it up.
Our friendship group have been supportive. Many sharing stories of their own families or friends with autistic children.
Your husband’s behaviour is quite disgusting. As a doctor he should be reading about the new medical studies on autism and the treatment options. New research shows that the grading/classification system for autism in the DSM is completely wrong and there are more reliable methods of determining where a child fits on the spectrum and giving a better view of what their future may look like. Your husband should know about genetic testing and the folate antigen testing and a new (cheap) drug treatment. As a doctor he would have better access to these treatments. Yet all he cares about is himself and how his peers perceive him.
I don’t raise my child with all the gentle parenting BS that we are told we must do for autism (redirecting, never saying no and ignoring when we are hit). I completely disagree with this. Of course my child is still autistic but I don’t think my life is over like I did before.