Raising a child on the spectrum: 5 things I learned
Raising a child on the spectrum - 5 things I learned
Lisa Pidge, Founder The Laugh Cellar
May 18, 2021
Our daughter Gigi was a healthy newborn. When the nurse put her in my arms for the first time, the feeling was inexplicable. I had never felt so much love. Plus, she was so damn cute. When Gigi was 18 months, we started to notice she was not fully grasping the milestone of putting words together. In fact, she literally had no words. She was advanced in many other areas, grasping skills, visual motor skills, hand eye coordination, vision and hearing were fine, body awareness, balance and motion, pretend and make believe skills were fine too. Yet, there were some things that we had concern about; she had a tough time with joint attention; she had sensory issues, and she walked on her tippy toes, a lot and the biggest piece, she was simply not talking. People kept telling us… don’t worry, she’ll talk. Some kids don’t talk until they’re five…people would tell us not to worry, not to worry, not to worry. Well, we did worry, and we sought out counseling and services to see what was going on with our sweet baby girl.
After many evaluations, and a year of incredible one-on-one speech therapy with minimal improvement, her psychologist made the diagnosis of Autism. Since, we’ve been on an incredible journey to help our daughter be the best she can be. And NO JOKE, her first word was YAY! She would say YAY for everything. We thought it was great. It was YAY all day in our house.
5 things I learned:
1) Don’t compare your kid to other kids
There is really nothing much more to say here, except: don’t compare your kid to other kids. At times, it was tough when the neighbor kids the same age were talking up a storm. We quickly nipped that feeling in the bud.
2) Create community
Joining parent groups with kids on the spectrum has been incredibly valuable. Not only have we met people who are fast becoming lifelong friends, it provides us a chance to discuss our similar experience in raising a child with autism. The community support shifts a load off our shoulders that sometimes gets heavy with frustration and stress; and a vodka soda with a twist of lime doesn’t always help!
3) Seek professional advice and guidance, often
There were many times when we had no idea how to handle a situation. For example, Gigi has sensory issues. A major one we’ve dealt with is her relationship with clothing. Every so often she does not want to wear clothes. We could be at home, at a restaurant, at a friend's place, and she just can't stand her clothes and wants them off. Once her clothes are off, she likes to wrap herself up in soft blankets or crawl into a pillow case like a cocoon. My wife and I have squeezed ourselves into many pillow cases. For kids who have sensory issues, their birthdate suit is their go to outfit. So, we call her Occupational Therapist who promptly offers tips that are essential to help us improve tricky situations.
4) Think outside the box
There are so many unique types of therapy for children with disabilities. For us, Hippotherapy, otherwise known as horse riding therapy has been a savior for Gigi. Since riding, her speech has improved incredibly, her joint attention is improving and she completely loves her horse therapist and Stormy, the horse. Additionally, she's been on a program called Nemecheck. An amazing protocol founded by Dr. Nemecheck. In a nutshell it’s a daily practice for gut health. The program helps get the brain clear, and wow it really has worked for us. It consists of a daily dose of special grade fish oil, pure California certified olive oil and a pre-biotic called Inulin. Take it from us, trying to get a four year old to ingest .5 milligrams of fish oil is no walk in the park, but somehow we manage, it’s called yogurt (disguised as ice cream!).
5) Know YAY is the way….
I mentioned above that YAY was literally Gigi’s first word, and she used it with intention. In her mind, everything was literally YAY! We believe that innately she's a very happy child. We believe that her first word YAY set the tone for our family; as we make the journey together. By the way, Gigi is four.
