Automated Transcript Episode 5
Autism and ADHD a Mother and Daughter’s Journey
Please excuse any errors as this transcript has been automatically generated
Dr. Olivia Kessel:
Welcome to the Send Parenting Podcast, focused on supporting and empowering parents and their Neurodiverse children. I'm your Neurodiverse host, Dr. Olivia Kessel. We'll be speaking weekly with experts in the SEND World. No topic is too big or too small for us to discuss. We will include things like, how do you navigate education? How can you understand what your child's legal rights are to an education? Practical advice on neurodiversity, and most importantly, hearing the voices of other parents just like you. Looking forward to having you join US Weekly as part of the SEND Parenting Tribe.
Dr. Olivia Kessel:
In this episode, we will be joined by Catherine working mom of three, who has kindly agreed to share with us her daughter's journey to eventual diagnosis of autism and ADHD. She will take us through how she felt when she first got confirmation of Coco's diagnosis, her experience of wondering why me did I cause this? What does this mean for Coco's future? Will she be independent? She'll describe her personal self educational course in neurodiversity, which broke down for her, the stereotypes of the labels of autism and ADHD and led to not only her acceptance of her daughter's neurodiversity, but really viewing it as a gift for the whole family to learn and embrace. Her journey really, really resonated with me, and I believe it will resonate with a lot of parents. Please keep listening to hear Catherine and Coco's story. So thank you Catherine, for joining us.
Dr. Olivia Kessel:
I'm really excited to hear your story with your daughter, Coco, and your journey with autism. I think it's really important because so many times kids who are diagnosed with autism are boys and girls tend to be left out of the picture. They tend to not maybe be stereotypical, and they also tend to mask their symptoms, so to speak. So it's can be confusing for parents if they have a child that they suspect or maybe don't even suspect. So I think your story will be really helpful to understand more autism and girls, So thank you.
Catherine:
It's a pleasure to be here.
Dr. Olivia Kessel:
Excellent. Well, do you want to kick us by telling us about your journey? What has been your journey with Coco? Yeah,
Catherine:
So, well, that's quite a big question. Coco is my eldest, eldest of three. And I think one of the challenges when they are your eldest, is that you are not used to parenting, so you have no idea what to expect. No reference point. Yeah, exactly. I did think there were a few things going on. I mean, at playgroup she was called chaotic Cocoa. They used to call her and various other things where she would be quite challenging at home. But I just thought, well, I've completely underestimated what it's like to be a parent. Clearly, you know, people told me it's hard. Clearly it is really hard. Then she started school and that's when quite a lot of the alarm bells started ringing. School would call me up quite a lot. They would keep me behind. And they never suggested or identified any particular diagnosis or needs. They just said she was struggling, you know? It was then that we had her assessed by an occupational therapist, and it was that point they diagnosed her with dyspraxia. So obviously that was the first thing. I've never heard of Dyspraxia <laugh>. I was like, what on earth that?
Dr. Olivia Kessel:
What made you go to an occupational therapist? Was it the school which recommended it? Yeah. Okay.
Catherine:
The school recommended it. It was only maybe about a year later when I was having a discussion with another parent who also has a child with dyspraxia and said, oh yes, of cours