Official diagnosis

Since I am updating my blog I need to go ahead and post this. While it's no secret that we have known for quite sometime that Ridlee is on the spectrum, we did go ahead and have official testing done recently so we can have something for when she starts Kindergarten next fall. I was somewhat shocked though that the Psychologist states she is Asperger's. While it is not an official DSM V label since it is all under the ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) now, I was always informed that Aspie's had advanced speech. Now Ridlee is highly intelligent, that is no secret, but her speech has always been lacking pragmatically. So I was always hesitant to believe she had Aspergers. But she does and without the advanced pragmatics of speech.

 I want to stress that the diagnosis of ASD is not a disappointment for us. We are not grieving. I am not wanting to "cure" her. I wouldn't change a thing about her. I understand not all parents feel this way and many cases are very different than hers. But Ridlee's is not a sad story. In many ways parenting her is easier than our neurotypical  children. She is generally very happy. She exhibits no anxiety. She doesn't mind new things and we can take her just about anywhere. She is mostly sensory seeking so she loves feeling and doing new things. Some noises bother her, but surprisingly not as much as they do me. She gets overstimulated less often than me as well. She sleeps well through the night. And other than allergies, she has no health issues. When she melts down she is usually either hurting from a headache (which we have found to be correlated to allergies and Flonase has basically been the perfect treatment for) or very tired. She can take redirection better than her 7 year old brother, who also has more meltdowns than she does. We are constantly learning new things because of her. Our goal is to support her the best we can, to help her be the best Ridlee she can be. In the meantime she is doing the same for us, in helping us be the best parents we can be.

Some changes have occurred because of this, but these are only positives. One being I have taken a renewed interest in working with ASD families. I am currently in the process of working towards a CAS (Certified Autism Specialist). God knew what he was doing by leading me to be a therapist more than 18 years ago and a play therapist more than 7 years ago.. My goal is to work with families as an additional short term resource in teaching them therapeutic play techniques they can do in their own homes. I hope to offer workshops on these techniques and allow other professionals to learn them and teach them as well. I am not certain how long it will take me to do this, but I have already dived in head first. If you are the praying type, I would appreciate any prayers you can give as I work on this endeavor. 

This.... this is my reminder why I am doing what I am doing. She is teaching me so much. I owe it to her to learn all that I can for her.