For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been busy shooting video of our life, and my talented video editing magician of a sister, Hayley, has put this together so we can share part of our story with you….
In my last blog post, I quoted this – “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” and I hope that my blog posts (text, photos and now videos) will serve a greater purpose to bring awareness to Autism in our own special way.
As a family, we are just beginning to ‘understand’ the world of Autism, with the diagnosis still being so fresh. I still regard myself an expert in Jovie firstly, and a student of Autism for life.
About 1 child in 2,000 is diagnosed with Autism in Australia. However, there is a concern that autism is being under diagnosed and that the real rate may be as high as one in 150. Source If I can somehow make a difference in another family’s life or help people understand that their behaviour is not because of ‘bad parenting’, and bring awareness about early intervention by telling our own story, then this is it.
As noted in the video, Jovie did meet her early milestones – she sat on her own, crawled, rolled over and walked at the ‘right’ ages. But then we noticed she hadn’t yet said a word, and stopped learning how to hold her own bottle and fork. We noticed she loved to flipped through books almost obsessively, not reading just flipping. She would grind her teeth and play with her fingers all day long. (There is probably more I’m missing to note here.. there is so much stuff 24/7). All the small things added up and after numerous tests and assessments, Jovie was diagnosed with Autism and a developmental delay. She is just shy of 2 an a half years old.
We are just at the start of her journey, and have hope that progress will be made to help Jovie to develop the skills she needs. Whatever happens, we are here for her and hope that other parents and families don’t feel alone in the fight for their children.
Please forward the video link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEKehDM98_Y) or my blog link (sh1ft.org) to as many people as you can.
Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.
