Health & Wellbeing
Why my Daughter’s Autism Has Made Me a Better Person By Jane Constantine Today my daughter read We’re Going on A Bear Hunt all the way through, all by herself, without any help! I am bursting with pride. Alexa is actually 10 years old, so you may question my pride in this. But until a few years ago, she could say very few words and couldn’t construct a sentence. She is of around 100,000 children in the UK today with autism spectrum disorder. Watching your child develop and gain new skills is part of the joys of parenthood. Alexa was a beautiful little toddler, full of mischief and joy but when she didn’t achieve the expected milestones, I was understandably worried and confused. When we started to attend the Stay and Play sessions at our local Sure Start centres. Alexa
would happily play with the toys and loved the puzzles and sensory activities but, at the end of the session, when the little ones would happily sit and listen to the storytelling session, Alexa would just wander off uninterested. She didn’t even seem aware that a story was being told. Most of the toddlers around her age said words
quite frequently and were pointing and communicating to their parents; we had a hard time getting Alexa to turn around when we called her name. I consulted a paediatrician when Alexa was just over 2 years old. She was diagnosed with speech delay and we were asked to come back when she was 3 years old, if no further progress was made. A year later, we were back in her office.
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Families North London
