The day that my life changed was actually pretty normal day. For years my son Damian who is 10 now has gone without a diagnosis. I've always said that there was something there. But I was told I was being a helicopter mom (ever seen that Capri Sun commercial? Ya that's kind of me).
The day that changed my life just happened to be a day that I was leaving from volunteering and the Speech Specialist he's been seeing since he was 5 brought me into her room to have a "talk" with me. She voiced her concerns about wanting to get him tested. At that point I started bawling like a baby. She thought I was upset that he could be but I wasn't. Finally someone saw it. I wasn't crazy. It was like from that point on the world shifted and people could see what I could see. I became less of just a "helicopter" mom and treated as someone who wasn't insane and actually knew something was going on.
After the testing came back I remember smiling during his ARD meeting. The councilor gave me the oddest look as if to say that I was demented for smiling at that moment. I said "well now I will get help for him. I mean he's an orange. I could call him a banana all day but at the end of the day he's going to be an orange. My job as a mom is to teach and help find his place in the fruit salad". Since then so many things have opened up. I can now say you see that behavior. That's not bad parenting. I'm doing the best I can. I really hope that there are other moms who have the courage to stand up and be heard. You are not crazy!!
Richardson, TX