The beginning
By a year old we had noticed our youngest son was a bit different. He was near silent, what great parents we thought! Then as the months rolled by there was no words coming. Silence in fact. And the more professionals we asked the more we were told 'his older brother talks for him, give it time'. And that's true, his older brother can talk, and talk, and talk. Thankfully a superhero came into our lives with 25 years of special needs experience who within about 5 seconds, dealt us an enormous blow. At this moment we hated hearing the word 'autism'. The more we researched it became apparent that Lukas was never going to find things easy. We were shattered. Mourning the child we thought we had and finding a new path with the one we did have.
A Determined and Unified Family
As a family we cried, daily. But we've adapted, finally finding methods to encourage communication and support his growth. The more he was observed it became clear our eldest, Oskar was fighting his own battle. Oskar has Asperger Syndrome. Two very opposite ends of the same spectrum. Oskar has a deep obsession with the police and upholding the law! At 4 and a half and 3 and a half (13 months apart, phew!) Oskar loves his mainstream school and is working hard to form friendships and build good behaviour at home. Lukas attends a special education preschool where he goes swimming and gets speech therapy every week. He uses picture cards to communicate and will say lots of words, although not in sentences. He even shared biscuits with his brother this week! Meal times are a struggle for both children as we believe they both have sensory processing disorder. The battle to desensitise them to food is ongoing. Lukas is still in nappies and uses a special needs pushchair as he cannot be trusted near roads. We aren't certain how the future will unfold, the fights for education are daunting. But as a family we are determined and unified.
