ASD - Autism Spectrum Disorder

This is not something I speak about much. And I probably won't mention much about it again. I'm not one to talk about really personal things to do with my kids. I think I mentioned it before in one post on here but apart from that the only people who know are our family and my best friend. I don't want people thinking differently about Keira when there's really no need to. Or people feeling sorry for her when she's perfectly happy and healthy.
Two weeks ago my daughter was diagnosed with Autism. It's been a three year long testing process and I'm just so glad to finally have answers. She's been through a lot. Especially in the past year. She's seen so many different types of doctors, psychologists and therapists. It started when she was three years old.  She's now six.

I honestly never thought anything was different about Keira at all until she started nursery. I'd never had a child before and never really had anything to do with children at all beforehand. When she started nursery it was her key worker that pointed out that there could be a problem. At first I was so upset and so angry that anyone would say such a thing about my little girl. But as the weeks went on and I started to think about it properly I realised that the nursery were right. For the longest time I blamed myself. I thought it was something I had done wrong that made her the way she was. I felt like I hadn't done enough and what I had done was all wrong.

I'm so proud of how far she's come recently. She's managing to stand in lines at school and walk nicely to the dinner hall. She's even started to take school dinners. She still doesn't do a full day at school. But she will when she's ready. She's learned her days of the week although she gets a bit mixed up with Thursday and Friday. She can almost count to 20 now. She's learning her alphabet and how to write all the letters but there's a lot to take in so it's a bit tricky for her. She's also learning to read and knows a few basic words.
This has all happened since August. It may seem small to someone who has a child at school because most children are learning these things at nursery age. It makes me so happy that she's actually taking these things in and may even catch up and be on the same level as her class mates by the end of school.
The doctors have told me that this is just something that happens and no matter what I or anyone else did she would still have Autism. It's something that you are born with. Even though I know this there's still days where I blame myself and I'm completely overwhelmed with guilt.

Keira has good days and bad days. More good than bad now. About a year ago it was the opposite way round! I think she'll always need me and her dad, probably more than most people need their parents. My little girl is perfect, happy, healthy and caring. She loves everyone no matter what and I wouldn't change her for the world. =)