I know that for a lot of people, the time of receiving the diagnosis can trigger a lot of grief and feelings of loss and hopelessness. But for myself, I think that because I knew in my heart that this was the issue, I went through that grieving time about a year earlier. When Michael received his diagnosis, my main feeling was one of complete relief.
FINALLY, I had an answer, and an official answer. I wasn't making it up, worrying about nothing, making mountains out of molehills, or wasting peoples time. There was something wrong, and now it felt like we could start to help him.
It was amazing how quickly things happened at this time. Within a week, Michael had been accepted into a Special Education Development Unit (SEDU), 2 days a week, which was a place for pre school aged children who needed early intervention. At this unit he was in a class of 6 with one teacher and one aide. He had such a good time there, and developed so much. He received speech therapy, occupational therapy, and some physio therapy at this place, and it dramatically helped him become prepared for grade 1. He was going to this school Monday and Tuesday, staying home Wednesday, and then going to the Preschool at the other school on Thursday and Friday. It was a lot for a little one of 4, almost 5 to do, so we cut all other activities at this time, as he would just get so tired.
We were also now able to get more help for him at his preschool, and he suddenly, instead of being a "naughty neurotypical child", suddenly became a "quite well behaved child with Autism". It made such a difference to everyone's reaction to him. It was the start of a beautiful relationship between him and his peers, and just made a lot of things clearer.
There were definitely many challenges ahead, but we had made a start, and were moving forward.
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