There is something we want to share with you about our family

Hello
We count you among our loved extended family and friends and there is something we want to share with you about our family.

On March 18 our beautiful Batsman was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

We had been concerned about his delayed language development and some of his other behaviour for quite a while and two appointments with a developmental paediatrician confirmed what we already suspected.

To give a broad definition, autism spectrum disorders affect children in the key areas of language and communication, social interaction and relationships and repetitive behaviours and routines. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a life-long brain-based condition – where the brain hasn’t developed in a typical way. The Batsman has been diagnosed with a very mild disorder and while he may not appear severely affected and generally functions pretty well, he has some significant challenges in the areas of language development, communication and social interaction.

Since the diagnosis, we have spent many hours learning about autism and what we can do to help our boy and researching various programs and options available to us – it has been a deluge of information and very hard to process it all. We are determined that The Batsman will have the best possible support that we can provide and have decided to undertake an intensive early intervention therapy program with him to help him as he develops over the next few years before he goes to school. The program is a home based program where therapists will work one to one with the Batsman for around 30 hours each week including supporting him at kinder. The program will be individually tailored and aim to assist him in all areas of his learning and development. The program is a big commitment for us and will be a big change to our family life but we believe it is the best thing for the Batsman right now. The program will mean we will probably have to limit our social and other commitments for a while as he adjusts to the program...it will be hard work for him and he will be pretty tired!

We are slowly coming to terms with these new challenges for the Batsman and for us as a family but the last couple of months have been very tough. We are all ok though and confident that our gorgeous eldest is going to make great strides of progress in the months and years ahead and we look forward to celebrating his successes. We know we are going to need the support and help of our family and friends, we just don’t know exactly yet what we will need.

There is lots of information available about autism, some of it conflicting, lots of it confusing. If you do want to read anything about it, a couple of good sources we have found along the road are:
• The Australian Autism Handbook (available online and at all the big bookshops) – it has a particularly good chapter on what to do if you are the “extended family and friends”.
• The Raising Children website
Forgive us for sharing this news in this way. We are having a hectic time with lots of appointments, information sessions and the like and we just haven’t had the time or emotional energy to speak to lots of people personally to tell them.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. We look forward to talking or seeing you soon. Hope you and yours are well and happy.
With love,
xx
PS: this letter was sent out to all of our friends and family a couple of weeks ago. I am posting it here because it represents a big part of the early journey, "the telling", and maybe someone someday will find it useful for their own journey.