My Lucy

In my last entry i mentioned that Lucy was being reassessed in terms of her special needs and sensory problems.
After lots of assessments and visits to the child psychologist she has been diagnosed with Apergers.
Asperger's Disorder or Syndrome is one of the Autistic Spectrum Disorders.
At the moment i am finding out as much about Apergers as possible - reading books, websites and any other info that i can find in order to have as much knowledge as possible about how the world works for Lucy.
It is important for me to do this so that i can try to understand things from her perspective but more importantly to help her with her life and any changes that might occur. The biggest change at the moment that Lucy will be facing is that she will be starting school next year and whilst it seems early to be thinking about that already it will take a lot of preparation to make sure she is ok to go and ready for the change and make it as smooth as possible. Can she ever be prepared enough?? I guess only time will tell. I hope so.

While we knew for a long long time that Lucy was "different" to other children and from a very young age has been having occupational therapy to help her with some sensory problems it was still a bit of a shock getting a diagnosis. A relief in one way to know what is actually wrong and to be able to find out what we can do to best help her and access any services that are available. But still shock and some saddness that she is not what is considered "normal" and that things from time to time are going to be hard for her. You start to think about how she will cope with different things at diffferent stages of life, will she be happy, will she make friends or will she be lonely?? So many things to think about. But on the other hand I am not sure that it bothers Lucy to play alone, is it just a thing that i want for her to have friends and things like that. Does she realise? I dont know.
I am happy that she will go to the same school as Ella because she is now familiar with the layout of the school and it will be a comfort to know her sister is there. I am glad that my girls are close. Not that they dont fight, but overall they love eachother a lot.