This is such a beautiful post that captured high functioning asd so well. It describes one of my kids so perfectly. I would cry at the pediatrician’s office out of frustration for so many issues in her younger years, but no one ever mentioned asd. When she was finally dx’d at 14, the np recommended not telling her because she also suffered from depression and she thought she would get fixated on it in a negative way. Now in her third year of college, she is making friends with other neuro-divergent kids and has diagnosed herself and is feeling good about who she is and how she fits in.
I always wondered if we had done the right thing, but she recently told us how she would not have been able to handle that label at that point in her life. Who knows really. I think it might have been best to know in early childhood and got the right kind of therapies.
She’s got some gross motor issues and is now learning to drive. 