Autism and siblings

My daughter is six and a half and she started asking about her brother I think at 4. He is two years younger and when the therapists would come to our house she would get jealous. I know it might be too simplistic but I told her that Emerson had learning problems. It was harder for him to learn then her and he needed some help from his "teachers" His teachers also needed to teach him how to play and we needed her help. We also said that his 'brain gets fuzzy' sometimes and he feels like 'the volume is turned all the way up" (We actually turned the radio up full blast for her so she would know what we meant)

   Now she is dealing with some jealousy that he is reading better than her. I tried to tell her it is just his super skill and pointed out all of the things she doesn't have problems with (like going to the bathroom) Having a sibling on the spectrum is a hard thing for a child to deal with. We ask alot of her and she always amazes me with how she handles it! I try to make it as fair as possible but it doesn't always work out that way :(

We have also been having to work on apologizing. He will hit her or mess up her things and he is doing REALLY well at apologizing after. She doesn't want to accept it though. After we had a talk about it and I told her that it is hard for him to understand how she feels when she is upset, and we have to help him even if we are mad at him, she has been doing a better job "helping" him apologize. Yesterday they were fighting and she was crying and all I said to him was "Meadow is mad at you." He started crying and "went to bed" I was SO surprised that he was upset because I told him she was upset. After that they looked at each other and started laughing. I live for the moments that seem typical! <3

My unsolicited advice

My biggest piece of advice for an evaluation is to get over it. I know that sounds harsh but your child is the same one as yesterday and with or without a dx they are still your lovely baby. The dx is just a tool and I actually was very relieved after we got it because the huge question mark was gone. It is horrible not knowing what is wrong with your child.

        I can remember after they told us that he had High Fuctioning Autism and Sensory processing disorder the therapists and doctors were all looking at me like they were waiting for me to cry or break down and all I could feel was this inappropriate laughter bubbling up. I think it was releif that we had an answer. I can remember my Mom kept telling me " I just need something I can google!" Labels do have thier uses, so don't be afraid of them. Think of it as a tool to help your child learn and grow. I can not STRESS enough how benificial early intervention is, even if your child just has mild developmental delays. My son started getting therapy at 19 months old before anyone even said the word autism. He was diagnosed at 27 month as severe to moderate and is now 4 1/2 and his teachers are telling me that he is more on the mild end of the spectrum. I could take all of the credit for his progress, but I put it ALL on how early we got him help.

Hey Mom, what are you laughing at?