Good afternoon My Dear All.
Lately, I've been reading so many messages here about being caught off guard by a diagnosis. I feel your pain completely. But as a specialist who has worked for 25 years with developmental, sensory, and behavioral disabilities, I want to say something crucial: A visual conclusion is not a clinical reality.
It is impossible to conclude that a child is autistic based on one or two factors. Not every nonverbal three-year-old has ASD. Not every child who "stims" is autistic—sometimes it is simply sensory overstimulation. Conversely, being "open" doesn't mean a child isn't on the spectrum.
I see specialists judging purely visually—like seeing a teenage girl wipe a table every two minutes and immediately labeling her "autistic" without seeing the OCD underneath. This is extremely wrong! To correctly help a child, we need careful, long-term analysis, not a 15-minute snapshot.
In 2015, I thought I knew everything. Then I became the mother of a special child. My son is now 14. For eleven of those years, I’ve been fighting for his rights against society, teachers, and a rigid medical system. This knowledge hasn't relieved the daily pain of motherhood, but it has taught me the truth: This is a battle every single day.
But we know what others don't. We know that the slightest, most "unnoticed" progress is a victory that gives us the strength to go on. Take a break, gather your strength, and let’s move forward again.
Hugs to you all.
Dr. Liubov Linichenko