So as many of you do not know my beautiful daughter, Autaum, has been in therapy for about eight months now. It started with my dad noticing that she still wasn’t talking as much as he thought she should of been. I blew it off and told him that she would learn in her own time. As the months went on more and more people started making comments, family members, my husband, old ladies at the grocery store. It got to be overwhelming.
I never thought there was anything wrong or different about my child until we met a new friend at the library. We met a beautiful little girl and her mother one morning. This little girl was only a week or two older than Autaum. Right away this little girl kind of put me in my place. She was asking for things in complete sentences, she was running around playing, she was so advanced. I felt so bad that I hadn’t seen what everybody was talking about this whole time. Autaum had only three words, Mommy, Da-Da, and Dog. That was it. She was two months away from her second birthday and she really only said two words.
I quickly started noticing a decline in her behavior. It was like my once bright, shining star had shut down. She completely shut down. She was attached to my hip, she wouldn’t walk in the store, she wouldn’t go play (even at home), she never left me. She eventually stopped talking all together.
At this point I started trying everything I could possibly think of. I talked to her day and night about every little thing. I labeled everything. We read books together. I dug up all of my old certification class work and my old child development books. I had exhausted all of my resources. Can you imagine how helpless it feels to know your child is struggling and not be able to help them?
Long story short, we had her evaluated for everything. The results came back that she had an eleven month speech delay. ELEVEN MONTHS! She was almost a year behind. I was heart broken. No mom ever wants to even think that there could be something wrong or different about her child let alone be sitting in a room full of strangers with degrees in this stuff and have them tell you your child is almost a year behind.
Shortly after we starting having home visits from an amazing woman. Autaum called her “Ms.Carene”. I loved “Carene”. From day one she ceased to amaze me. I had tried every thing I could possibly google and still “Carene” would one-up me. All she ever did was play games with her but that’s all it took. “Carene” knew how to push Autaums buttons. Autaum started calling me “mommy” again, she started asking for food instead of pointing, she started to engage in one on one play and look you in the eyes. It was amazing.
Autaum continued her weird behavior just not as bad. She still wouldn’t go play with the other kids but I was able to pee without her in my lap. Other odd things starting coming out too, like she wouldn’t let me cut her nails or touch her ears, she refused to wear shoes or socks. There was like two strait months that all she would wear was Crocs or rain boots. I think Crocs have to be the ugliest shoes next to rain boots, but that’s what we had to work with.
One day “Carene” asked me if i’ve ever heard of Sensory Processing Disorder. Of course I haven’t. She then takes out this four page packet of questions to ask me about Autaum. Thirty minutes later she then explains that she has noticed some off things about my girl and if I would be willing to meet with a occupational therapist. Of course I would.
That first day of meeting “Resa”, her OT, was the worse. I think I cried for three days strait. It turns out Autaum does have SPD. I went to every website, I read every article, I researched myself into depression. I was so worried. What does this mean? Is she going to be labeled differently? Are people going to treat her differently? Do we have to warn people about this? There were millions of questions.
To finish off my rambling, eight months ago I felt like all was lost. It felt like I had completely screwed my daughter up. With tons and tons of prayer Autaum is officially graduated from all therapy. Her case manager who is also called “Resa” told me this morning that she has only seen two other kids, in her entire career, graduated from services. My baby did it! She did it! She did it! She did it!
Autaum will always have this disability and it will always effect her. We have given her all the tools we possibly can to thrive, the future is up to her and the big man upstairs.
Today is a day to celebrate! Not very often do you see a kid go through and conquer so much in such short time.
I do ask that you please share this post with everyone you know. SPD is a very serious disability, we were blessed with Autaums being not bad at all but most kids are not so fortunate. SPD is a disability that insurance companies are not recognizing, this means that for many they will not receive the services that they need because parents can not afford them. This also means that parents have to pay for all of their child’s equipment, therapy sessions, etc. and if you don’t have the hundreds of dollars that it takes you child will have to do without. SPD effects almost every aspect of that child’s life. Everything they hear, see, touch, smell, taste is effected, most often in a bad way.
Please do not take your senses for granted.
Through the next couple if months we will be raising money for the SPD foundation. I will be setting up an account where you can donate money. I will also be selling TShirts and hair bows. Our theme this year is Ladybugs since that was Autaums nursery theme. So spread the word and as always love someone with SPD, I know I do!
HippyLife 