Just thought I'd share my very revealing morning. Went to dd's school play and we had tea afterwards and the head and deputy head were there. We got onto the subject of dd and her difficulties. They both agreed that dd was on the spectrum but that they doubted she would ever get that diagnosis as her autistic features are mild. They also feel that she has a lot of spd traits too which of course is on the spectrum. We all agreed that dd does have autistic traits and that there are many things she does that are not autistic which is why it would be hard to make a diagnosis. The exciting part was that the head said to me that there was a girl in yr5 who was very similar to dd and again didn't have an asd diagnosis but had features of it. I ended up meeting her too. This girl was so lovely. She was showing me her pictures that she had drawn. I was overwhelmed as they were fantastic, so perfect and then she showed me her writing books and again long detailed stories and the most amazing hand-writing. You could hardly tell that she had difficulties at all. The thing I found most reassuring was that the girl started to flap her hands a bit as she was getting excited talking to me (as dd does) and when she realised that what she was doing she put her hands behind her back. As she has been taught to do that as a strategy.
If dd comes on as much as this young girl did I will be estatic, over the moon. It was just so strange seeing dd in 5 years time and apparently she was just like dd at 5.
I feel so relieved and happy as I have always known dd had asd but was always told no by the professionals. Deep down I always knew she did but obviously wanted to believe them when they said it wasn't.
As dd's deputy head said it doesn't matter about labels what matters the most is that dd is dd. As I am typing that I am crying because I feel in my heart that is so true and that's all that matters.
Thanks for listening and letting me share that with you. I feel I have really turned a corner today. I can face anything!!!!!!!!!