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My story on Jamie our wonderful yet special son |
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Anonymous Author (May 2007) |
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Jamie is 5 and we have had a very hard 5 years as other parents with a Autistic child will all back me up and say. We have our good days and we have our very bad days. (When our routine is out they are even worse)
When Jamie
was a baby I was too wrapped up in my own Mental Problems I didnt know what to do with Jamie and his tantrums. Both Josh and I thought they were due to my moods. But after watching him smash his head against the floor we thought maybe something is wrong. We asked family about this, they all said its just kids and Libby is a bad mum he is just acting out due to her. (I was very hurt when i found this out 2 years later) Yeah i new I had Post Natal Depression, but i was working how to deal with it and lonelyness (like a few mum's I lost all my friends when I got married) I tried to get better (still am)
After dealing with the tantrums and throwing of food and toys and hitting, I gave up, I lost the plot. I couldnt handle it at all. It wasnt until we had our Daughter and saw how her development went I thought something wasnt right with Jamie and saw my doctor. He was about to go into Kindy and was such a "sookie" child, he cries at the smallest thing like his friend not wanting to play today or his sister has a drink first before him. I went to see this specialist (who i saw as a child with my sister who has cronic astma) who took a look at Jamie (now 4) and said ADD, ADHD and here sign this and i'll send it off to the Autistic clinic here in Perth. I said "parden" all I knew about Autism was the "worst case" I was a mess and was surprised that i got it back to my nanna's in one piece (she watched Charlotte while we went)
He got through Kindy with help from his teachers and is behind a lot ( I am considering keeping him down next year) and in the September we got a call to go to the Autisum Clinic and they watched, played and spoke to Jamie for 2-3 hours I think it was. A few weeks later we get al call to go in for an hour meeting to go through what they feel is with Jamie.
We sit down. "ok" the lady says.
"We class Jamie as PDD-NOS"
Josh and I looked blankly at each other and then looked at Jamie and both said "that means what?"
she said mild Autism, he is very bright and needs help getting it all out. Obsessed with this and that.
After a while all I could think was, what does this mean.
Then she said you will have to come back in a year or so and get a re-assesment as these things change and we feel that he will become high functioning Austic. Again i looked at her and said "sorry what?" I dont remember much of this day, I guess you can say I am still in a part of denial.
Jamie gets a carer at school for about an hour a day and this is helping. The kids all know that Jamie is special and they all help him with his special needs teacher in the playground and has become a popular boy, where last year he didnt play at all, didnt climb or run. He has come a very long way and am so grateful for his 2 teachers Mrs Barney and Mrs Burroughs (they had him last year as well)
This part here I would like to thank Libbylincon for as she is writing a book about Autistic kids and asked me a few questions about Jamie.
- This is Jamie's "Growth and Development"
- At 5 Jamie still can not use a knife and fork
- At 3 and a half he was semi day train with the toilet, but every night wets the bed (any help there please minti mail me)
- Jamie was born with his cord around his neck twice, he was born 7 pound 6 ounces and was 59cm long and 35cm head. He was very skinny. I also was in First stage labour for a few weeks, second stage a Week and third stage almost 24 hours. My body was exhausted by all of this and i slept through his birth at the hospital.
- At 18 months Jamie started the Tantrums. He used to get on his knees after something didn’t go his way he used to smash his head on the ground and walls, we had to put his bike helmet on to protect his head. to this day he still does have these "attacks", just now he punches things
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- Up until Jamie was 8 months I thought he was fine to what I saw of him. He had very limited speech and didn’t walk til 14 months and still had limited speech. By 18 months the tantrums and head banging started. Lining up of toys and “unusual” behavour to what I had seen in my cousins and friends children. But I knew in my heart there was something different about him but I didnt want to believe it.
The hardest part of all of this with Jamie is no one has supported us and has all basicly told us the doctors and specialists are all lying. And even now Josh's family think its all me and Jamie is perfect. We have even given Josh's mum the report we were given at the Autistic clinic with exactly everything writen black and white and she (who I will add is a teacher a pre-primary teacher) still doesnt believe it.
This causes me so much hurt and sleep. I love my son so much and I think he would not be Jamie if he didnt have Autisum. He is my special boy and we all as a family do all we can to help him. His sister who is 3 knows and does what she can to keep our kaotic routine as well.
We have found over the last year that we do have to keep a some what routine or we have a lot of troubles and behavour problems with that. We have become leaneant parents and let Jamie do a lot of things if he is being good. I have tried the whole star chart thing and it didnt work with him or his sister.
Lexi xxx
....I would have been carted off to the loony bin.... you are a gem and Alex is a lucky little boy to have you! Good luck with it all and if you need to talk there is always MINTI!
