Archiving this as it was taking up too much space

The why behind the blog

I originally thought of calling this blog ‘the Aspy bunch’ but was worried about putting folks off by being offensive/insensitive. That is a problem I often come across because, although I’m undiagnosed, after doing extensive research on Autism and Asperger’s syndrome it’s fairly obvious that I’m on the spectrum. This blog has the URL autismfam.blogspot.com because it’s about my family’s experience with Autism. Here’s a breakdown about who I’ll most likely be writing about:

Our Family – A snapshot at the end of 2012

- Mum (me): undiagnosed with many obvious traits of Autism/Asperger’s. I scored above 30 on the Asperger’s Quotient available online (I only know 3 people who scored above me).

- Dad (my husband): Pretends to be ‘normal’ but has chosen to marry me… This raises serious questions as to his sanity.

- The big one (Eldest daughter): Born in 2004, diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome (mild) in 2012. Speech developed early and quickly, excellent artist, very smart, quite athletic. Also prone to anxiety and struggles with socially appropriate behaviour (varies greatly from extreme shyness to hugging strangers depending on her mood).

- The little one (Youngest daughter): Born in 2007, diagnosed with High Functioning Autism (mild) in 2010. Non-verbal at 18 months (although she could speak), used to scream blue murder if anyone touched her. Has become very sociable, funny, highly intelligent and likeable. She starts school next year in January.

- Abuela (my mother): undiagnosed. Obviously Autistic; difficulty with social situations (often called rude or antisocial), obsessed with numbers/dates, becomes highly anxious if things are not done her way. She has a sister who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at the age of 40.

- Other family members likely to get mentions are: Opa and Oma (Dad’s parents), Sisters (both husband and I have sisters, no brothers) and cousins (the girls have a few of these).

I have done a lot of research into the spectrum and I hope to do more, eventually I would like to do a PhD study in the area. It started when the little one was 2 and still refusing to speak most of the time. She was also known to wander off at day-care and lie down under the slide to escape the noise of the other children. This set off alarm bells for me but no one believed me at the time because she was so beautifully behaved when she was out of home. At home, however, she threw tantrums, hit her sister and father constantly and was generally unpleasant quite often. I took her to several nurses and doctors throughout 2009 but was only taken seriously early in 2010 when I took her to see a nurse who had known me for years (and, therefore, knew I wasn’t a crazy hypochondriac). She sent me to see my GP for a referral to a specific paediatrician who sent me to see a speech therapist and a child psychologist; together, these ladies put together a diagnosis of High Functioning Autism and they started helping my daughter to improve some of her skills. We have never looked back.

They say that knowledge is power but it is also fear/paranoia. Often, the more you know about something, the more you see it around you. Also, we all have a few Autistic tendencies in us so I started to see Autism everywhere while I was researching it in order to understand how to help my youngest best. That’s why I was a bit hesitant to take the big one to the doctors when I started to notice some interesting behaviours in her as well. I thought I had become the crazy mother the doctors had seen in 2009, finding faults where there were none. Eventually I took her to see the same specialists as the little one and they came up with the diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome.

The purpose of this blog is for me to share our stories. Sometimes they’ll be funny, other times less-so. Sometimes they’ll be about the girls, other times they may be about me (I’ve found during my research that I’m not immune to the Autism factor and a lot of things I struggled with in my childhood could probably be attributed to the fact that I’m also on the spectrum). We are the Aspy bunch and these are our stories.