What is Autism you might ask. Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first two years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills.
I have a daughter with Autism. Her name is Katlynn and she is 2 ½ years old. We nicknamed her KK and she is our little redhead princess.
I will start by saying that I will probably use the abbreviation ASD a lot. It means Autism Spectrum disorder. There might be a few other terms I use on here relating to autism you can just google if you want to read up on what I am talking about.
So, recalling back to when Katlynn was 1 year old, I didn't even think about autism. Sure she had some developmental delays which caused me some concern when she wasn't even 1 yet, but her pediatrician assured me I had nothing to worry about when I addressed my concern for her delays. Katlynn was forming words, babbling a lot and seemed to have good eye contact and was social interactive, but she wasn’t crawling and seemed to be falling behind her sister in fine motor. So I wasn't overly concerned but kept my eye on her. Again, at 15 months I asked the Dr. about my concerns and again she blew me off. She told me Katlynn was within the normal range and if she still wasn’t walking at 18th months she would look into it. Well this momma bear was not having it and I got to work.
First thing on my list… demand a neurology referral from that pediatrician and then seek out a new pediatrician because this gal was officially on my shit list. The neurologist referred me to Inland regional Center, who evaluated Katlynn and put her on services for Infant education, speech, and occupational therapy. Katlynn did finally start walking at 18 months which was about 2 weeks into her therapy services.
We were on the services for about 5 months when I realized, she was making progress, but just not enough to suit my needs or the needs of the infant educator. She introduced me to the autism spectrum umbrella and informed me that she was seeing a lot of red flags in Katlynn for PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified) and possibly classic autism. So, I knew it was time to call out the big dogs and I went back to my NEW pediatrician as asked to be referred to the autism clinic through Kaiser.
Some of the things I noticed with Katlynn that lead me to pursue this appt were:
Poor eye contact
Head dragging
Non -affectionate (resisting hugs and cuddling)
No interaction with her siblings and not even much with her father and I
Speech delayed
Sensory problems
Seemed like months before we went to the dreaded appt. When it finally came they assessed her and told me they would contact me with the results.
In early August 2009, Katlynn was just over 2 years old and we went in for the results to the test. Sure enough, I would receive the heart wrenching news my daughter was diagnosed with classic autism. I was in a cloud for what seemed like eternity. I was devastated.
I felt as though my world came crumbling down. I was pouring my nose into every book on ASD’s/autism, treatments, recovery, etc. I would watch videos, contact resources, and take any advice I could get. It was all such a blur. I got sucked into Jenny McCarthy’s cure/recovery process and everything. It was taking over my life in a matter of weeks. Finally, I grounded myself and realized I needed to be a mom and a wife first and then an advocate for my daughter second. After all, I had a husband and 2 other daughter’s wondering what the heck was going on with mom.
Finally, after talking to so many other parents of children with autism, I decided ABA was the most positive outlook for Katlynn. The regional center agreed to place Katlynn into an ABA program in Nov 2009.
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