Dani Barretto with her daughter Millie | Image: Instagram/@danibarretto
Content creator Dani Barretto clarified that her four-year-old daughter Millie is not autistic, despite concerns about her speech delay.
“She hasn’t been diagnosed [to be] under the spectrum; ang diagnosis pa lang sa kanya (her diagnosis so far) is a speech disorder, if I’m not mistaken,” she said in an interview with the press.
Barretto then shared that her daughter’s speech is getting better after a few therapy sessions.
“There are more words now; we’re working on more sentences, so day by day, lumalabas na ‘yung voice niya (speech is slowly coming out),” she expressed.
Barretto previously opened up about a time she “snapped” on her daughter because she couldn’t speak.
“I had a moment I snapped. I don’t think I’ve ever shared this with anybody, but I snapped. Naiiyak ako (I feel like crying) just remembering the time I snapped. She couldn’t communicate. She was just crying, and I was so mad,” she recalled in an episode of her The Bare It All Podcast.
“And I just said, like, ‘Just talk! Tell me what you feel!’ like, sinigawan ko na ‘yung anak ko (I shouted at my daughter). You know, right after, I felt so bad. Like, hindi niya kasalanan ‘yun (It’s not her fault). Pero ako ‘yung na-frustrate para sa kanya (I felt frustrated on her behalf),” she continued.
Barretto admitted that it was hard to accept that nothing was working for her daughter at the time, and she felt so guilty that she snapped.
“‘Yung parang lahat ginawa ko na, lahat binayaran ko na. Kung saan-saan na kita dinala. Bakit walang nagwu-work? And after nun, sabi ko, ‘Alam mo, Lord, I leave it up to you na lang.’ May purpose kung bakit to nangyari. But that was, like, so hard for me to admit to myself na, ‘What happened? You’re not allowed to snap.’”
Millie is Barretto’s daughter with her husband, DJ Xavi Panlilio. They tied the knot in 2019.
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