We are starting this blog...partly for us to keep it written down, to see how far we're getting or look back on how far we come, partly for the family who arent close by and friends who want to keep upto date with whats going on and partly for all the new friends we are making going through something similar.
The story so far...
... December 2008 Joshua was referred to the child develpment unit for an assesment and was given a physio. He was one years old and unable to do an awful lot, he wasnt mobile, wasnt babbling his development had hit a standstill from early on and we were growing more and more concerned. Josh was premature so we expected certain delays but it was just not getting any better or easier and it felt out of our control he seemed so unhappy and frustrated so we was incredibly glad our concerns had finally been followed through.
Joshuas physio was wonderful, and still is, withing the first couple of months of her visits he began sitting, rolling, crawling, pulling himself up and cruising around the furniture but was unable to put his feet completely to the floor.
Feb 2009 We met Joshuas consultant and he was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy (spastic diplegia) this causes the muscles in his legs to be too tight and means he's unable to keep his feet flat. He also has some problems with his hands. He went on to have an MRI scan in the july, which didnt show anything major but we was warned that it may not, was quite traumatic seeing my little boy be put to sleep once again and feeling him lose consciousness and go limp in my arms served a painful reminder of theoretically what caused us to be here, luckily he is much braver than his mother and woke up screaming for toast and juice!
Over the rest of 2009 we saw various people speech therapists, occupational therapists all to help us bring his development along but at his next consultant appointment in september 09 Joshuas consultant was concerned.
His development age was sitting lower still, there was still no communication and not much attempt still his eye contact was lacking and he much prefered playing by himself so a week long assesment was arranged.
leading us upto March 2010.
We began Joshuas assesment he saw a Occupational therapist, Psychologist and a speech therapist and at the end of the week we had a sit down to discuss there findings.
So there we are on the friday walking into a room that looks like a conference room for a work meeting with the 3 specialists, his consultant, a peadiatrician, a portage worker and a secretary who sat and wrote everything down like you see in court! it was quite daunting. They discussed everything with us and put his development age at 9-10 months... our two year old had been overtaken by his baby sister, not that we hadnt noticed this but its all that more real when someone says it to you! An then for the final blow of the morning...which completely threw us...the diagnosis - Autism. We hadnt expected nor prepared ourselves to hear it, not that we didnt know the possibility was there but hes still so young and it all seemed so much for my little man to have to go through. The following days were for thinking and learning ...
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