My daughter was born in the fall of 2009. It was the best day of my life. God has given me another beautiful girl to love. I loved holding her in my arms and looking into her beautiful eyes. I loved watching her grow, loved watching her do all her first things. It was a moment I will never forget!!! When she was about 12 months she started to take her first steps and started to make sounds. She was saying "dada". It filled my eyes with tears. I was so happy.
Within a few months she suddenly stopped talking, stopped making eye contact. Everytime I would talk to her she would not respond to me. It raised a red flag for me. As time passed she was not interacting with her siblings. She was not playing with toys like a child her age should be.I raised my concerns to her pediatrician. He gave me a autism form to fill out.
With so many concerns going through my head already I was afraid to see the results to this form. When the Dr. looked over it he was in shock. I was in shock just by the look on his face. Just filling in the answers to the questions made me cry because my daughter could not do any of the things that were on the form. He suggested we give her some time. I agreed but with one condition ,that after time passes I get referred to a specialist get her evaluated.
Two months passed and still no progress. There were symptoms that I had noticed with my daughter. When she got excited she would flap her hands. When you called her name she would not respond. She was not social and would sit on the floor by herself just looking at toys because she didnt know how to play with them.
I went online and started googling autism and the symptoms. When I saw that my daughter had some of those symptoms my heart broke into tiny pieces. I was in disbelief. I had gotten the referral for Early Intervention and called them to set everything up. Within a few weeks she was eligible for services. Still no dx so she got DI 5x a week, OT 2x a month, and Speech 1x a month.I then called the specialist and made an appointment.It took 6 months to get my daughter evaluated. But she was already getting EI. She was slowly making progress but she wasnt where she needed to be.
Finally on February 1, 2012 (I will never forget this day, I remember it like it was yesterday) my daughter had her appointment and that day was the worse day of my life.. the Dr. dx my daughter with classic Autism. I cried and cried. I looked into my daughters eyes and I cried some more. I had many thoughts going through my mind. I coulnd't beleive what I had heard. I was in denial.
I gave the results to EI and they changed her services to ABA 12 hours a week. Increased OT 1x a week, and speech 2x a week.Within a monh of ABA starting my daughter made so much progress. She was making eye contact. She was playing with toys.She knew some colors, shapes, alphabets. It was an amazing feeling to see my little girl make progress.She is now in pre k3 and doing great. My heart still hurts because she does not communicate vocally. She uses sign language which is great. But for me, not hearing "I love you mommy" or any sounds, is a hard thing to deal with.
I dont know when she will talk or if she will talk. All I know is that if she can sign I love you mommy, thats good enough for me right now. In due time everything will fall into place. I will never lose hope. I will stay strong and fight for my daughter. This journey has been a great one. I have met so many amazing people. They have shared their experiences and have given me the support I need. It's a great feeling to know that you are not alone. Education, Awareness, and Acceptance is what families like me need. I just want my children to be accepted for who they are.
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