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Suzanna
I took the advice of this woman and had Suzanna visit, a pediatrician who came to the conclusion that she was a healthy little girl with no hearing problems or any apparent learning disability and the Dr. referred me to a speech language pathologist who began working with Suzanna once a week and continues to work with her to this day.
By all appearances Suzanna grew to be a normal looking child. She struggled in school in certain subjects and seemed to take a little longer than other children to learn certain things such as Math and English. Her reading comprehension was that of a much younger child but all her teachers gave her A for effort because she tried so hard to do everything that seemed to come that much easier to most of the other children. She excelled in art and would spend a good portion of her free time drawing. She also was a whiz at video games and mastered many of them quickly. My biggest concern was that her social skills seemed to be non -existent. She seemed to be clueless as to how to interact with her peers and never seemed to be able to make friends for very long, her quaintness was not readily accepted by the other children. She spent her lunch hours walking around by her self while other children enjoyed playing schoolyard games. It broke my heart to watch as other girls were invited to birthday parties and sleepovers and my daughter was never asked. Luckily she was not teased or bullied but the segregation was just as bad. She just wanted to fit in and she didn’t seem to know how to go about it. I had many meetings with the teachers regarding my concerns and in all fairness they tried their best to get other kids to include her. They started a buddy system where she could choose one girl or boy to join her for a special lunch of pizza or tacos. The kids seemed enthused for a while but sooner or later the thrill wore off and she was back to being alone again. She was nearing her last year at elementary school and I feared that junior high would be hell for her, knowing full well how cruel teenagers can be if you don’t quite fit the mold.
In January of 2004 I received a phone call from Suzanna’s speech therapist. She sounded very excited about something and wanted to arrange a meeting with us as soon as possible. We met with her two days later and she told me that she had heard of a child psychologist in a nearby city that was getting a lot of attention for his research on Autism Spectrum Disorders. I was shocked to say the least to hear the word Autism but listened intently as she told me that this Dr. specialized in this area and she could recommend that Suzanna see him although the waiting list was long and it may take a year or more. I told her to go ahead and we were able to get an appointment for September of that year. She said I was lucky because most people waited up to a year to see him. She also gave me a few articles to read and also some websites where I could get more information on Autism Spectrum Disorders. The more I read the more I realized that there was a huge possibility that my daughter had this neurological disorder.
