Jacob sat, crawled and walked a little later than average although not outside what is classed as “normal”. I don’t recall his speech being delayed.
The first things that highlighted me to the possibility of something underlying with Jacob were sensory seeking behaviours. I didn’t really know much about autism before and hadn’t really been around anyone autistic so it didn’t immediately scream out to me that that’s what it was.
He was about 18 months old at the time, around the time his second sister arrived, and up until having Isabelle I worked so Jacob and Lily attended Nursery full time. They also began to find his behaviour to be increasingly challenging.
All children, particularly toddlers, can be particularly challenging but with Jacob it seemed so much more than this. Most children can be praised, cajoled, chastised, bribed even into doing what you’ve asked of them. All of this was equally ineffective with Jacob.
I expressed concerns around his 2/2.5 year review with the Health Visitors although nothing came of this. The next significant milestone was starting school and this was when things really kicked up a gear.
#pathologicaldemandavoidance #PDAAUTISM #autismfamily #autism #senparent #senparenting
Jacob and his 4 sisters 