My boy with the HUGEST heart.
Diesel was 9 years old when he was diagnosed with autism and
although it wasn’t a complete surprise it was a completely different journey
than his brother Orlando.
Diesel met most of his developmental milestones when
expected but I was told it wasn’t unusual for boys to be late so any issues
just seemed to resolve them self. Diesel was an extremely happy and amazingly
loveable little boy. He had blonde hair, blue eyes and a smile that made
us melt. When he got excited he would clench his fists and all his muscles
until he would shake, it was hilarious and super cute we would ask him to do it
just to watch him for the joy he is the cutest.
Diesel didn’t start to really have any issues until he
started school, his prep teacher sent us off to a specialist for educational
assessment as they were noticing issues in his learning. We followed
instruction and it came back Diesel had auditory processing and memory
retention issues. Recommendations were made to school and some adjustment implemented.
In grade 1 his teacher was finding he was still struggling so the education department
speech therapist came to assess him and made suggestions to the school for
assistance. In grade 2 Diesel was diagnosed with a congenital lung disorder
after an extremely dangerous scare with acute pneumonia, he went on over the next
2 years to have extreme episodes of ill health and many major surgeries to save
his life. By this stage Diesel was 8 years old and the issues with his
education had significantly worsened. We also noticed a big issue with his social
and emotional wellbeing. We started to see a psychologist to support Diesels
anxiety after the trauma he experienced with his health.
Unfortunately the school did not follow through on
recommendations that had been made by therapist and we felt the school wasn’t supporting
Diesels needs. Diesels brother Orlando was dual schooling (mix of mainstream
and special needs) at the time and we had issues with lack of communication and
support so we made the decision to change schools for all of our boys. It was a
massive decision and I lost countless hours of sleep praying we were doing the
right thing.
At the start of the next school year Diesel started at a new
school and from the very start we noticed more issues socially and Diesel’s
anxiety got worse. I have to explain a little about Diesels anxiety because to
most people he is a very happy and engaging young boy. Diesel wears an invisible mask it is the most difficult thing about him.
To most people he appears to be a friendly functioning young boy and he is
but he has learnt skills over the years to hide his symptoms/anxiety and blend in like
a chameleon. It’s almost like he has learnt scripted language to cope in
certain situations unconsiously, but unfortunately there is not a script for all social
interaction so when he is in a situation he doesn’t understand he struggles to
cope. Diesel would meet me after school and break down, he would try and
explain why he was so distressed but it didn’t make any sense. This would go on
for days about the same issue and he could not move on, even after lengthy
discussions and implementing strategies to help him he was still clearly
struggling. Eventually Diesel could not hold it together for the whole day and the teacher noticed some distressing behavior in class. We sort more help from the paediatrician and the diagnostic process
started.
Diesels was assessed by a psychologist, occupational
therapist and speech therapist and found to have autism.
Diesel also went on to have a cognitive assessment which showed he is extremely intelligent.
Diesels biggest issues are social and emotional, we continue
to see therapists and support him as much as we can.
I hope that reading this story helps someone else on their
journey.
Thanks for reading
Jess x
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