"Our son"

When our son started nursery, we knew he was a bit different to all the other children, but just didn't know why. There was something missing and we couldn't quite find the missing puzzle. He has a tic that he won't do in front of anyone. He only does this at home and talks with his tongue to the side of his mouth. He doesn't like food touching food on the same plate, he doesn't like change, everything has to be in order. He loves maths and anything to do with numbers. He isn't keen on reading and finds it hard to focus on written work, but does push himself and tries his best. This is only half of it. The list is much longer.

He only knows now  why he has been going to appointments. We tell him that his brain works a bit differently to others. It has really effected us as a family and it is very upsetting to see   At times he is very frustrated. He has siblings and they see things differently too. He can only be given one instruction at a time, otherwise things can get very confusing for him. He finds it hard to tell his left from his right. He knows a lot of facts and can remember many facts. He will tell you things that you have not heard of before.

Thinking back to when he was a baby, he was the only one out of our  children when you tried to give your little finger to him to hold, he always pulled away and never held onto that little finger. You just never think, but it's the small things that make the big things happen.

He absolutely loves school and has a brilliant group of friends. The teachers have been wonderful and there is other support teachers as well, who help him on different days with individual things and he enjoys the activities that they give him. We just want answers and how to make his life a bit easier for him.

We have spoken to a lot of people since nursery and throughout school, from teachers and speech therapists and they have been really helpful, but we still wanted answers to what he has. It wasn't until we spoke to Sarah from occupational therapy in Stirling community hospital that we were able to get more of a feel of what was going on.

It only took a few appointments for her to be able to see for herself how he was struggling with things. These appointments were face to face, which we thought were amazing because you feel like you are getting to know the person that is going to help your child and you and he loved going to do different activities with Sarah. As parents we sometime struggle with not knowing  what to do and getting the support face to face is really much better that a phone call.

He is now on the waiting list for CAMHS. So, we still know it is a waiting game regarding what he will be diagnosed with, but at least he is on the list now and we can't thank Sarah enough.