Yesterday Gareth and I were invited to an after diagnosis talk (forced selfie above) at the child assessment unit- CADU.

We were asked how Teddie was and if we had any questions- Of course, I had some questions.

• Is a specialist school right for Teddie at this stage?
• EHCP related issues
• Anxiety related problems  

I would like to say our questions were answered but felt that we were slightly pushed towards other agencies rather than answering the questions herself.

In a nutshell, the meeting was to hand out leaflets and be told, Teddie is now getting discharged from the unit. It honestly felt like we’d waited for 17 months to be seen, get a diagnosis then handed some leaflet and wished good luck.

What we would have prefered was an honest talk where someone tells us they understand what we are going through. I wanted someone to say it’s bloody hard work and some days are going to be worse than others but we will get through it.

For us, we weren’t really after much help but it made me realise that other parents might need it so below is our honest parent ASD tips.

The autism spectrum is a wide one, what works for one child may not work for another- in fact, what works for Teddie one day may be obsolete the next.

As autism parents, we needed to deal with Teddie diagnosis before we could help him, we needed to fully understand everything in order to make sure Teddie has everything the world has to offer.

Parenting an autistic child can be challenging at times but we honestly wouldn’t have our Bear any other way!