Hello,
My name is Denice. I am mother to Amelie, a three year old girl living in Southern California.
One of the most scary days of my life was when my husband and I were seated at the small table in her preschool class and told that she was delayed in speech- possibly due to neurological problems.
"They are calling it Autism these days." her teacher said, as my eyes glazed over, gut churning.
Like many parents, we had heard some general statistics- that Autism diagnoses are on the rise, that there are many advocates and programs out there, that there is no real "cure"... And, like many parents, we went through the same stages of outrage, numbness, denial, anger and depression. Over time, we each tackled this knowledge in different ways- attempting to work together but finding the differences in our individual problem solving styles as challenging as the news itself.
The first few months have been difficult, to say the least. We've done exhaustive testing, reading and diet experimentation -at least as much as one can do while raising a toddler and working full time.
We certainly don't know everything yet- we don't have a diagnosis, a permanent plan or any medically definitive results from the things we have tried. What we do know is that we are on a journey- like every parent. There is still a lot of inner debate, turmoil and exploration. We want only to do right by our little girl and we love her enough never to stop trying- but also enough to keep her from feeling continually under the microscope or "different". We've observed that sometimes kids don't know how to share things with us verbally. We learn from them in the quiet moments- through their tiny whispers.
This is a place we've established to share the things Amelie is teaching us. We hope it can help you too.
Thanks,
Denice
