Oh dear there’s a lot to unpack here. Can I just start by saying the fact she’s finally put that out there is one step and it is better than the ignorance we’ve seen of ronnies clear developmental delays, so credit to her for finally realising, you can’t help a child by making them live a life being who “you” wanted them to.
the label thing troubles be, Sophie I know you read here. Autism is a label, like any disorder is, if your child is not labelled with his autism or whatever it could be. He would of spent his life being labelled as strange, quiet, different, unusual etc. There’s no escaping labels. So please rethink how you word that. Autism is a label for a child who is neurodiverse, children with autism are amazing and have the potential to fulfil a rewarding life. Be grateful that you have access to huge lots of money which will open doors to jumping ques for private slt, ep etc assessments.
Ronnie deserves and is entitled to privacy on his journey in learning how to navigate the world as a neurodiverse child. The world is not quite there yet of being accepting of neurodiversity, take him away from Instagram, work with him privately. If you want to share snippets of him, cover his face, share how the progress is going but let Ronnie have a private life and identity away from the Instagram world. He will thank you for it as he gets older. If she does read here, read about “theory of mind” google “theory of mind and autism” it’ll help you understand better.
Children with autism can be particularly vulnerable, I highly recommend you do not keep sharing everything about him, this is the one thing she needs to take on board.
I would also recommend she start finding out about schools in her area now, he is 2.5, them yesrs fly by till reception. Sophie if you read here, private schools are not as good as mainstream schools for senco. I know you believe chucking cash will buy the best but that’s not always true. Yes it’ll certainly help you pay for private assessments which is amazing, if Ronnie needs an ehcp one day this potentially will get it sorted quicker if your local la accepts private assessments… but it doesn’t help with education. Private schools just don’t seem to have the amazing resources and knowledge like state schools do, probably because their are far more children in state schools in the U.K. and always have been so you’ll find the best for Ronnie will be a mainstream school with a good senco or a specialist school.
I really really hope this is the start of something for that little boy, I really do. He deserves to thrive and be loved. No more lying about his development as that almost makes it seem shameful, I hope she deletes the videos of her trying to prop him up and lying about speech. He doesn’t need to feel like he was embarrassing growing up.
mostly YESS for Ronnie! I would absolutely love to plan intervention with him, I just know he would thrive!