Ok, its been a long time since I was last here. DD has had visits with the Paediatrician now. She is currently still awaiting Speech and Language therapy. She is seen once a week by an Early Years Support Teacher. She is at preschool now. The educational psychologist will be seeing her at preschool this week. The paediatrician believes she may have ADHD and/or ASD, but has not yet diagnosed. The Early Years Support Teacher has also mentioned ASD. They have both said that DD will definitely need extra help in school. The preschool have concerns about DD as well. They have said they have been a little inclined to downplay her issues. The preschool teacher whose group she is in is wonderful and specialised in Statemented children (Special Needs children). She is concerned that if DD is labelled it may cause her more problems. She asked us to please not send her to special school. Up until this week, it never crossed my mind that we had other options aside from mainstream school with additional support. The paediatrician and the preschool have suggested deferring her from starting school for a year as a possibility but neither were sure on the practicalities of such a thing.
ASD has definitely come up more in discussions about her than ADHD but they both seem to be on the table.
I feel kind of odd about the whole thing as well. As you know, ADHD has been on my mind since day 1ish. But, ASD, well thats something new to me. I have read up on it and Im still a little unclear as to where she fits in.
Her speech is still very delayed. I was going to say that she has started to make animal noises and has said Momma a couple of times, but then I read a little further back in this thread and I said the same thing almost a year ago. Those skills appeared to go away and then come back at some point in the last year. She says more things now though. She says Bider (spider), give back give me your hand (although I dont think any else would know thats what she is saying) HI Bye both with a wave and both appropriately. She tried to repeat some words that I say Shoe Juice etc.
I have known her to point at object if I ask her where they are but it is rare. Usually if I say Wheres the light? she will just go a switch the light on and off.
She has no issues at all with eye contact, certainly not with myself or people she knows. Im not sure where she stands with that with people she doesnt know.
Her imaginative play is very good indeed. She plays with dolls all the time, almost exclusively, she occasionally uses toothbrushes as doll substitutes (I cant tell you how many times we have had to by new toothbrushes. It is at least once a week lol).
She loves to dress up. She pretends to drink from a toy cup after pouring pretend tea. The other day, she lapped up her drink as if from a bowl on the floor and then she came over and said Woo Woo which is Woof Woof.
She still doesnt really play with other children. She prefers to do her own thing and will usually push other kids away if they try to join in. She has played alongside one child in the same area at preschool, but Im not sure for how long or if it was a one off.
She still kicks, bites, punches people. She also kisses random strangers.
She has regular meltdowns or tantrums if things dont go the way she wants. She still doesnt seem to be able to sit still for long although, she did recently let me read a short book to her when I added interactive bits into it.
She can match colours and can point as if to count but doesnt say the colours or numbers.
She is still very clingy towards me and it took a while to get her settled at preschool. Once she had attached herself to a certain teacher she got better with it. I dont take her to preschool, my family do, so Im not sure if she would be ok with me leaving her. Once we get to preschool to pick her up she just attaches herself to me the whole time.
She still has sleep issues. She will sometimes fall asleep at around 8ish though which is an improvement. Even now, she still wakes up and gets into our bed. I have tried the usual sleep tactics. A few nights ago, I attempted to keep putting her back in her own bed each time. I lost count after 150. She thought it was a game. It went on from 11pm-1:30am. I eventually fell aseep in her room and she did too. At 4:15 she came into our room. I would have tried the same again but we had to be up at 6am so by the time she would have gone to sleep we would have been up.
She is still not potty trained. I have tried leaving her with nothing on, but she just holds it all day and then if she falls asleep, either at night or for a nap I will put a nappy (diaper) on her and she will do her business. She is quite happy to site on the potty or the toilet but nothing ever happens. I dont think she really gets the point although I have tried to explain it to her she doesnt understand.
Anyway, I still dont really know where we are. Clearly, she has issues. Clearly, she will need help at school. We are not currently sure why or what is the issue. We are not currently sure of the best course of action.
I dont even really know how I feel about it all. I think on the one hand if she was diagnosed with ASD and/or ADHD it would be awful because of the obvious reasons but then I think I would feel relieved that its not just that I am a hopeless parent with no clue how to teach a child the basics and no clue how to discipline bad behaviour.
I guess I just wanted to talk it through with people who are not involved but may know from their own experiences some of the issues we are facing.
Wow, sorry did not realise how long this was!!
