Why Does It Take So Long?

The first time we got asked to have our son assessed for autism was when he was 13 years old.

He had just moved up to secondary school.

His first day at school seemed to be fine.

Then his world came crashing down.

He was getting ready for school and as the time for him to leave got closer he became more anxious.

The moment drew closer and he just couldn't walk out of the door. Tears rolled down his face and panic appeared in his face.

On that day we spent hours trying to get him to school without any luck.

This carried on for months the tears, the panic and the anxiety.

We would take him to the school and as soon as we walked into the school gates the panic would start all over again.

We were meant to hand him over to one of the teachers there but he would work himself up and the teacher would just turn round and say,

"If you can't get him in school then we are going to send you to court."

We had done everything we could and the stress this was causing us was unbelievable.

The school even got a psychologist involved and he was the one who asked for him to be assessed.

We had no clue how to do this he told us to go to the doctor and they would get the ball rolling.

We saw the specialist once and he didn't say much. Our son was put on a list.

The school had to fill out forms that the specialist had sent them. There was a delay.

I was left to chase them up myself.

Even then the school continued to threaten us with court action.

Because our son still found it hard getting himself into school.

Last year we finally got our appointment for him to be tested.

The specialist sent out another form for the school to fill out and can you believe it when the time came for the specialist to come around and see us the school still hadn't fill out their part of the assessment.

Thankfully the assessment went ahead.

I was asked once again to chase up the form with the school and after numerous phone calls they eventually sent off the form.

And then we got the results. Our son has autism.

It total it has taken 3 years.

3 years of the school causing a lot of stress.

3 years of court threats.

My question is WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG?

And why is there no help for the children and parents who have to go through this slow and distressing process.

Here is a little more about Lisa this weeks guest post blogger

I'm a mum of 3 wonderful children

J is 18 this year and I can't believe how fast he's growing up.

S is 16 and has autism he's a great lad. He's the most kindest lad you will ever meet

H is 5 the only girl in the family she is also being home schooled.

My blog address is autismlife16.wordpress.com