By this time, we had our second child Laya. Vivan adored his little sister and equally felt she was a threat as I always held her close to me. While we continued his speech and day care, we decided to meet the paediatrician for further diagnosis. Until that point, our family had limited knowledge about Autism. We met the Paediatrician when Vivan was nearly 2.8 years and using the Vineyard Adaptive Test, Vivan was again diagnosed as global development delay with severe speech language impairment.
We were provided referral to PECAT (An Early Childhood Assessment Team in my local council). The PECAT team provides diagnostic and assessment service for children under six years of age who are not at school on developmental, intellectual, functional and health assessments for children who have or are suspected of having a global developmental delay.
Unfortunately, the wait time was a year. We felt very unsettled with further referral to PECAT because we knew there was more to Vivan’s diagnosis of Global Development Delay. This revelation drove me to research Autism extensively. At this point both Vinod and I had a strong inclination about Vivan’s autism but hoped otherwise.
With my continuous research, I was convinced that there could be potential benefits of early intervention, we didn’t hesitate to initiate therapies for Vivan. We continued with speech therapy and started Occupational Therapy (OT). Vivan was very delayed in speech and social areas.
We accessed 3 hours of therapy a week. We finally got our review done at PECAT from a senior development paediatrician and an educational & development psychologist.
Vivan was diagnosed with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) level 3 with age appropriate gross motor skills and age delayed fine motor and cognitive skills. We got this diagnosis validated when Vivan was over 4 years. Though we had research knowledge of ASD, coming to terms with such a revelation was profoundly unsettling.
When we first validated Vivan’s diagnosis, the weight of it felt immense. Mainly because we had no living knowledge of ASD and as parents, we are completely clueless on what to do. Exiting the PECAT centre Vinod and I held our hands and both of us walked with loads of tears without speaking a word and Vivan like always looked at us and gave us his big smile.
I can never forget the day and the visuals; it will always remain in my memory vividly.
