World Autism Awareness Day falls on 2 April - however in our house every day is Autism Awareness Day ;)

It is now almost three years since we were told about our son's special power. Three years of hard work, of incredible milestones, and painful setbacks. Managing life with differently wired kid is... hard. Emotionally, mentally, physically and financially.

Things that we need to cover on an ongoing basis are:

• fees for the therapeutical kindergarten dedicated exclusively to kids on the Autism Spectrum(25% higher this year than in previous years), that provides individual and group therapy, speech therapy, Sensory Integration therapy and canine-assisted therapy.
• fees for Sensory Integration classes ( 25% increase in price since last year)
• costs of therapeutical equipment we need to have at home

Why do we need all of the above?

Autism is a different neurological wiring - this affects the brain, but also the body.

Autistic children do not experience their bodies in the same way neurotypical kids do. What does it mean? That autism comes with additional physical challenges.

Autistic kids experience major issues with gross motor skills (they do not have awareness of their own body, have issues with movement planning). In real life terms this means that Milo needs to have regular daily massages where we name his body parts. He has issues with keeping his balance, with riding a bike, climbing. Not being aware of his own body also translates to not being aware of bodily functions. Deficits in gross motor skills also mean that simple daily tasks of getting dressed or undressed are still something he needs assistance with. He also needs very strong stimuli to self regulate - again - daily tasks for us to ensure we help him do that. His core muscles are not as strong as they should be and this in turn means additional support needed. Without the core muscles, and gross motor skills, his fine motor skills are also lacking - at the age of five he still struggles with drawing or coloring. While he is a bright, curious child, he needs extra support to catch-up to the norm as school is just around the corner. There is a strong possibility that before we know it, we will need to also fund hand therapy.

There is also a big chance he will get dyslexia diagnosis.

On top of that we are also navigating through his social anxiety, meaning that every child he meets is seen by him as a threat. Milo will be scared to have conversations, interactions - he is scared that they might as much as look at him. Even with children at a kindergarten we need to have ongoing talks on this topic.

When you tackle one thing - five others pop up.