contributions
By Rebecca Perkins
MY
SPECIAL
CHILD
F
or the first few years of my
son Lachlan’s life, I didn’t see received a diagnosis of ADHD and an
that he was struggling, that intellectual disability. But there was
he was so far behind. Or, I refused
to see. Then at three-years-old, his
When you’re pregnant with
still very little support available to us.
I became more and more
kindergarten teacher turned to me frustrated with the lack of information
one day and said she would like to and support out there for parents.
get Lachlan seen by a Special In 2014, I moved from England to
Needs Coordinator. Australia, hoping that here there
What?! Special Needs??? I was
would be more, and there was, but
your first child, you have a furious. How dare she try and say think their life will be like, my son. I used to teach children that if there wasn’t enough easily
with additional needs and I had accessible information and support
qualifications in the field; I’d know, for parents, then I would make it
and I told her so. accessible. In February 2015, after
perception about what you
how clever they will be, how
many friends they will have.
You look forward to watching
them play sports and having
parties, and you already can’t
there was something ‘wrong’ with
still nowhere near enough.
So, I made a decision. I decided
Children develop at different finally getting my law degree, I gave
rates, I thought to myself. So, my son up on a career in law and started My
is developing a bit slower than the Special Child.
wait for their first parent- other kids … so what, he’ll get there. how well they’re doing. began to see it. I finally began to website. It wasn’t very good, or
realise that she may have been right. pretty. And I spent months try to fill it
And from there our journey through with articles and information.
teacher interview to hear
But for some of us, this
doesn’t become reality.
It was 12 months later that I finally
the special needs maze began.
Lachlan was four-years-old
first version of the My Special Child
Then slowly I built up more
and more readers, and I realised
there was more of a need for good
support, fighting for services, fighting quality information and support than
for information and fighting for a I had realised.
of these things were available.
contributions
I set to work building the very
when I began fighting. Fighting for
diagnosis. But sadly, very little of any
54
Lachlan was eight when we finally
In January 2017, I set to
work building My Special Child
linkonline.com.au