Accepting the Autism Diagnosis

I was recently reminded of the early days and months of our child’s autism diagnosis.

Did we accept the diagnosis right away?

Well, our son was too young for an official diagnosis.

In those “early days,” he was developmental delayed.

We were given a provisional diagnosis from a California Regional Center which gave him services.

This was a good thing.

When did we receive the actual diagnosis?

When our son was three years old.

The provisional was removed. He officially had autism.

Did we accept the diagnosis?

We did.

We had a year-and-a-half to get used to the idea, after all.

When the word autism was first used, we were freaked out. We didn’t sleep well for a few nights. We weren’t quite in denial, but we didn’t know what autism was, we didn’t know how to feel.

We were scared.

We talked with a friend who advised us to stop looking at the Internet. She encouraged us to get our son an evaluation.

Did we do it right away?

Not exactly.

It did take two or three weeks. That was our denial period—three weeks.

My husband’s best friend (a pediatrician) kept after my husband. He gave us information about a UCLA program and a Regional Center.

Finally, my husband and I made the call and we scheduled an evaluation.

At the regional center, we were congratulated for bringing in our young son, who was only fifteen months old at the time.

The evaluation took three hours. It was draining. Again, we didn’t know what to expect.

They gave him a provisional diagnosis and LOTS of services.

My husband kept on working. I stayed with our son and made sure he got to all of his appointments.

A year and a half later, the diagnosis was official. The services continued.

Slowly, our son overcame his many challenges.

Did we accept the diagnosis easily?

Of course not. We accepted it on the level that we need to do something about this thing right now. We got services for a child that was barely sixteen-months-old back at a time when most kids were diagnosed much, much later.

We worried.

We looked at other typical kids and said to ourselves (silently), “Will my kid make friends someday? Will my kid ever get potty trained? Will my kid go to college? Live on his own? Get married, have kids?”

Outwardly, we were cool and collected. We made appointments and worked with our son at home.

We went about our life, too. We went to baseball games and visited relatives. We flew on airplanes!

I never really questioned the diagnosis, I just had to learn what it really meant.

I accepted it pretty early on because I knew that he was “different.” Different, not less than.

Acceptance to me means moving forward with services, dealing with challenges, and believing that your child will be okay. Your child will be your child. Forever.

I love my child just the way he is.

Forever. I’ve accepted that fact!

Accepting the Autism Diagnosis

https://blog.theautismsite.greatergood.com/diagnosis-grief/?utm_source=aut-autaware&utm_medium=social-fb&utm_content=link&utm_campaign=diagnosis-grief&utm_term=5533964&fbclid=IwAR2mNDFNRIp2tOwRY-94f6OTfG5k9AU1ette4Cv5PCZKqexbnIelYO7wKmE