I want to start by saying that I have also been a victim of “homeschooling” and educational neglect so I am familiar with it to say the least.
Tw: SA, Neglect
I (22f) have a younger cousin (almost 17f) who I am worried about. She is almost 17 but has the mentality of a 6-8 year old. I have worked with kids forever and know how child development and autism work. Shortly after starting the second grade her mom pulled her from school and said the teachers were bullying her. She told us she was going to homeschool but she never did. My cousin doesn’t leave the house and is severely developmentally delayed. She was supposed to be in speech therapy due to overuse of a pacifier when she was younger and her mom stopped after a few sessions. Her speech, fine motor, emotional, cognitive, and social development are all that of a much younger child. She was completely normal and hitting all milestones prior to being pulled from school and isolated from our side of the family. Anytime we see her she is extremely dirty and her mom admits she can’t get her to shower because she has sensory issues but we all know for a fact that her mom doesn’t even try. She treats her as toddler. She was even mad at my mom once because she taught the kid to wash her own hair at 10 years old because my mom was asked by my aunt to bathe her and my mom wasn’t comfortable because she was already going through puberty at that time so she decided to just walk her through it and not do it for her. She also doesn’t see doctors unless forced to. This is all just the tip of the iceberg. Today she had to take her to the doctor for an ear infection. This doctor had seen her almost 6 months ago. It was the first time in almost 10 years he had seen her and told her he was going to call cps if her labwork and weight didn’t get better because she is overweight and her labs showed her to be extremely unhealthy. I decided to call him myself because I just want her to get proper help and we have tried EVERYTHING. The police, another doctor, and myself have all made cps reports before but nothing ever happens. I told the receptionist who I was and what I am worried about. She told me she would tell the doctor and a few minutes later I got a call back from another lady. She asked about details and I explained everything. The cps reports, the suspected SA from her brother, the neglect, the dirty house, and educational neglect. She was worried. She told me she’d fill in the doctor and said that at the next appointment the kid would be given a form to fill out to catch red flags but that they couldn’t do much without her saying something herself. The issue is that her mom fills out the paperwork and the kid herself doesn’t even know she is being neglected because it’s all she knows. She will never ever say anything against her mom either because once again she is mentally 6-8 years old. I am really hoping her doctor calls cps and something is actually done but I came here to see if anyone has any similar experiences with family.