Parenthood & A Diagnosis

As a parent what was your reaction to your child's diagnosis? What signs did you see that prompted you to inquire about testing for your Ausome child? I am a mother of a child who has been diagnosed with Autism and ADHD. As my Ausome child started her milestones as a infant I noticed that she was a little off task. My daughter was not doing the babbling as children do around the ages of four to six months, it was more of a grunting and a lot of whining. What actually made me realized that my child may need to be evaluated was the fact that she was not crawling until she was almost one years old. She was given plenty of floor play and walker time but still didn't build up her strength for her to be mobile at that time. Due to my daughter being in daycare she was referred to Early Intervention, which was a huge blessing. Early Intervention in the state of New Jersey is a program designed to assist children from birth to the age of three years old who have missed milestones or have a known or unknown diagnosis. Early Intervention also provides a number of services for children which include Speech, Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy. Through those services   we were able to address the issues that my daughter was facing and they gave us activities and exercises to complete on a daily basis to build up her strength in her core muscles so that she was able to sit up on her own without wobbling back and forth . After going through the services for about a year and a half my child was crawling and climbing full force. By the time my Ausome girl was two years old she began walking but she was walking on her toes. Toe walking is normal for some of those with Autism and can be helped by using MAFO braces to help with balance and walking. 

The early stages of knowing that my child was "different" per say was not a easy trial to go through in life, especially alone as a single parent. Sitting in that office as a doctor is explaining to me that my daughter would be non verbal, toe walker and mentally her brain functioned on a infant level at her age of three years old at that time. I honestly felt as if someone just pulled a chair from out under me. I seemed like my world crashed and shattered. A diagnosis does not just affect our children they affect us parents as well. As a parent your first thoughts of questions are what did I do wrong during my pregnancy, what could have I have done differently or how could I have prevented this from happening. Let me say this first, MOTHER'S IT WAS NOT YOU! We tend to be so hard on ourselves but once we begin our research and understand the process on our children's disabilities it becomes easier trust me. As parents we are our children's first line of advocacy so its so important to educate ourselves first to ensure we are not just accepting any treatment or medications that are children do not always necessarily need. Parents always remember to not let these diagnosis define who are children are. There are various treatment plans, medications and so on to aide us in this new age so never give up hope of what could change in your children's circumstances. God always has the final say on the things in this life. 

Now when we are talking resources, this is where my resource center Ka'Leah's Ausome Corner comes into play. Me as a parent, yet also a single parent knows the struggle through these processes first hand, not just on the level of Autism but my oldest son who is now nineteen years old was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at the tender age of eight months. My knowledge on the disabled population is broad in range and that is were my passion stems from when I decided to bring in to fruition my idea of a resource center. I want to be able to assist the ones in my community and surroundings with the knowledge that I did not have as a first time parent and a first time parent dealing with a child with a disability. This journey that we are going on with our children is a learning experience for us all across the board. I want to invent a safe space for us parents to have session to discuss the different diagnosis, to discuss how we feel as parents as we see our children progress/decline, behaviors and all. Parents do not always get that outlet that is needed to be there for their children eighty percent of the time and I want to create that twenty percent for them. I want our center to have open sensory play for children and eventually moving to have respite care available. Respite care takes the center to another level due to the high demand for respite care for young children in the area.