Long Story Short

The past couple of months India's been through several evaluations as we tried to figure out the reason(s) for her speech delay. Behavorial, psychiatric, hearing, second opinions -- the works. All of that has resulted in a diagnosis of mild autism. Mild enough, apparently, that with therapy, she should be back "on track" within a couple of years.


Now that we're satisfied with the diagnosis, we're trying to figure out what our options are w/r/t to therapy and schooling, etc. We're still processing it ourselves, but since it's the reason we killed our house search and are staying put for another year, it's not something we wanted to be all secretive about now that we know for sure.

For all those that know us, do me a BIG favor and try not to act like this is the end of the world. It's really not. She'll be okay and so will we, and overdoing the sympathy - or even worse, debating the diagnosis - simply puts us in the awkward position of wanting to punch you in the mouth. Seriously.

Sorry if that sounds rude or whatever, but it's true. Under normal circumstances, most parents despise unsolicited advice (especially from those without children of their own), but in a case like this, where people who KNOW about autism still don't know much about it, you're taking a chance of crossing a line you might not be able to pull back from. A simple "Let me know if you need anything." is cool and would be most appreciated.