Helping make information accessible & making life easier
Hello, and hope your doing ok? I created Autism Essex because I am a parent to a little girl who is now 7, she has Autism and Global Development delay. Our daughter was diagnosed at 3 years old, even though we knew ourselves early on but from the moment we had that letter confirming diagnosis life has not been easy, its taken hours of internet searching, reading, trying to talk to others and trial and error.
Life is challenging enough so trying to navigate new territory, find support or get advice is exhausting and frankly should not be this hard. I am Essex based so for me seemed only correct to focus here but I help as we grow other areas can be explored with those who know them best.
From learning about Autism, finding professional help, support groups, schooling, EHCPS, knowing places you can visit as a family without it being so stressful, where to shop, eat and holiday, Autism Essex we cover everything. I am not professionally trained in assessments, I am merely creating a community, a hub that makes life a little easier.
For me our daughter was young, like baby age when we started notice things and even though she was our first we still knew something wasn't 100% - maybe parent gut feeling.
For us the first signs were
Lack of eye contact, this has since improved massively but when she was a baby and even toddler years it was hard to grab her attention
Finger pointing/hand pointing hand flapping is still a big thing but the finger pointing was like she was doing spells
Side eyes
this still goes on today but she would look to site of eyes without moving head
Spinning in circles
at first we just thought oh cute shes doing spinny spins but it was actually a stimmer
Lack of Food and drink tastes
she kept to certain things and that for years, only now at age of 7 are we seeing some changes and I will be honest that is school that has helped with that
Safety She would love being put in her swing seat secure and watch Baby TV, she would stare intensely and there would be certain programmes that would trigger her to become upset. Could be certain colours, or certain music
Ear Holding
This is still a huge one for her but putting her hands on ears started early
Sleep issues
She did not sleep through until 3.5 years old, she was up most nights for hours on end, as if she was wired, so buzzingToilet issues
Still at age of 7 we fully trained in toilet area, school have helped her so much but Nappy pants still part of daily life. We couldn't toilet train at all, we tried everything.
No talking
Talking is getting better, we have songs, we can definitely work out what she needs but its still limited
Communication as a whole
It was if we were talking in riddles or she just didn't see us sometimes
These were some of the main alerts we had, I know there is many more but it's hard to remember everything, all I know is for me I just knew, my motherly instinct said look into this more.
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