Getting diagnosed with Autism

After 16 years of struggles in school, my son at the beginning of 2020 was diagnosed with Autism. Finally we got the answers we needed, and then suddenly the country shut down. State borders were closed, and my mother was unable to visit. One of our main supports was unable to be here. My son, then got thrown into online learning, and he floundered. He was unable to engage with the learning, he was at a new school, new staff, away from his friends, worried about his brother who has a autoimmune disease and trying to understand his new diagnosis. The school didn’t know how to support us, as we entered the school with no diagnosis, but with Covid shutdowns wading through the paperwork and requirements was proving near impossible. In the end, we found a new normal but it was an incredibly challenging year, we managed to scrape through Year 11, access NDIS and begin therapy, but we can’t help wonder if the whole thing would have been easier without being stuck behind closed doors. We did discover our strength and resilience though, and in the end we have our health.