Hello; I’m Jessica. I have never done anything like this before so feel quite exposed but i want to raise awareness for “special needs children” I have 3 children, Summer is 12, Bailey is 9 & Frankie is 8. I absolutely love being a mum and they give me so much joy. They all have their own amazing personalities and make me smile every day.
This blog I am focusing on Frankie; he was a late developer; he didn’t start walking until he was 2.5 years old; before that he used to walk about on his knees (the amount of trousers I went through was crazy) & was a late developer in speech too.
Around 3 years old when he started pre school that’s when we realised Frankie was different. The pre school arranged a meeting to tell us that he wasn’t meeting their “age level” Frankie hardly spoke, only used a few words at that age. He had his own little language going on “oyyy” meant “toy”, “ummer” meant “Summer”
When the pre school mentioned about signing up for speech therapy sessions this made me question ‘is my child normal” I was starting to feel guilty and question myself whether this is my fault “is it something that I done wrong during pregnancy”
When he was playing with his toys I noticed that he started lining his toys up in lines or in colours. He would only watch 1 tv show (at the moment it is Paw Patrol), would only want me to read 1 book to him, he kept flapping his hands when he got excited (I later learned this was called ‘Stimming’)
Frankie has been having speech therapy for 5 years now and he is progressing slowly. Frankie is in year 3 at school but is currently at year 1 level. I have considered pulling him out of school and home schooling him. He is on the SENCO register and has 1/1 sessions when at school. His primary school have been amazing and have helped and supported us through everything. They got an educational psychologist in to assess him and the psychologist told me that he was showing traits of autism. Yes again more “mum guilt” sunk in.
We are now currently in process of seeing the paediatrician at the local children’s hospital (Covid has put it on hold which is very frustrating) to get a diagnosis for “autism”
Home schooling is fun; I am just currently teaching him the basic phonics and speech therapy work that his therapist sends me over.
Frankie is simply amazing and I can watch him forever. We are still in the ‘long’ process of getting Frankie his support. Frankie is the most caring, loving little boy ever and he gives the best cuddles.
I wanted to write this blog just to raise awareness for other worrying mums/concerned mums/autistic mums to keep pushing, keep fighting, never give up and never stop fighting for your child & don’t feel like a failure. You are simply amazing.
Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviours, speech and nonverbal communication.
If anyone wants to message me for advice then please do me.
“There is a boy with autism who has taught me more about life than anything else in this world ever will.”
We hope you found Jessica’s post on raising special needs children helpful & educational! Are you raising special needs children?
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INSTAGRAM – JESSICA’S COUNTRY LIFE
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