Time for a label

Both myself and my mother realised fairly quickly that Harry wasn't 'quite right'. Why was hard to pinpoint. We initially sought advice from friends in the form of "what do you think of Harry"? Mostly responses were he is fine, he is a boy and slower, his big brother must talk for him. I knew all of this wasn't correct. Getting a professional to listen to me also proved VERY difficult. I looked like a very young mum - despite being about 28 years old. No one took me seriously and assumed I couldn't discipline properly and that was why my son had meltdowns. They all said I obviously had a very strong bond with my child as he would communicate with only myself and I was the only one who could placate him when he was stressed. At the time I thought this was normal.

I was passed on to many 'professionals' who seemed to actually know nothing. They kept trying to change his behaviour when in fact he was quite well behaved. We now know he had sensory overload and this is why he did the things he did. I finally saw a psychologist who did an developmental assessment and at 2.5 years, poor Harry was sitting at 12-18 months along all areas. We quickly realised we had to treat him differently. Not in a preferetial way, but we had to remember that what we assumed he should understand was not the case. We had to continually remind ourselves to treat him like we would his younger cousin who was exactly 12 months younger!

Luckily I had my knowledge as a medical professional to help me. I knew who I wanted to see, and I knew no one could stop me seeing them. I sometimes had to demand to see people. Not take no for an answer. I finally saw the clinical psychologist who I had been dreaming of seeing for months. The best autism specialist in Newcastle. His books were shut but we had worked together previously so I was very lucky to have him see Harry. In our first session Harry went ballistic. It may have been the biggest meltdown he had ever done. The Psychologist said at the end "within the first 5 minutes I had diagnosed him with autism". Finally someone saw what we saw! The next session Harry was perfect. He made eye contact, did what he was directed to, smiled. The Psychologist was shocked but he said nothing explains the initial session. A diagnosis of PDD-NOS was given. (Pervasive development disorder - not otherwise specified). Or atypical autism.