She's 10!

Well, she was 10 last month. 

She's a fun, funny, smart, stubborn, defiant kid. She loves animals and thrives in nature. She seems younger than her years. She has ADHD and Oppositional Defiance Disorder. She's creative, appreciative and thoughtful at times, and at other times she's selfish, rude and aggressive to an extent most parents don't experience on a regular basis. I have tried a million different approaches to help her with her frustration tolerance and anger management, but not much has stuck.

Yesterday I got a call from a doctor who had recently evaluated her, and I was told something I hadn't expected. She's being diagnosed as autistic.

I hadn't expected it because my kiddo is very social. She has good friends and makes friends easily. Earlier in the week, the doctor told me that one of the main determinants of autism spectrum diagnosis is difficulty in this area. So it seemed highly unlikely she qualified as being on the spectrum. But then the doctor talked to the team of therapists who have been trying to work with Sadie for the last 5 months, and said it was eye opening. Due, I suppose, to Sadie's unwillingness/inability to connect with any of them in all of that time, the autism diagnosis was made.

My daughter and I connect a lot. We look each other in the eyes, we make each other laugh, and we relish in doing so. It still seems unlikely to me that she's on the spectrum, but I haven't been sent the report yet, so I suppose I'll become enlightened then. Certainly I'll learn more. I hope the diagnosis means that she'll get more help with her frustration/anger.