by Pat on Mar 22, 2009 at 2:14 PM
Filed in Autism and Stress | Autism Family Facts | Parenting Autistic Children | Stories from Readers | Treatment for Autistic Children
I am the mother of three beautiful boys. Our middle son was born in february of 2001. He was a happy, healthy baby. He seemed to hit all of the milestones at the exact time all the baby books said he should. He smiled, laughed, walked, and began to talk, but at age 18 months he began to regress. He went from a 25 to 30 word vocabulary to 3 words, momma, dada, and baba. Everything else he wanted he would point and screem. His eye contact at this point was nonexistent and he began lining up his toys and other objects. I recognized the signs because I have a nephew who is severly autistic that is 2 and a half years older than my son. I contacted every organization I could find to get services for him. So at age 2 we started with speech, ot, and pt 3 to 4 times a week in our home. We were sent to specialists and at age 3 he was diagnosed. Since then we have struggled with acceptance by others, especially family. My husband and I do everything for our children. He is a stay at home dad because it is almost imposible to find childcare from someone who can deal with the emotional side of this disorder. I now work full time as a personal care aid for my severly autistic nephew. Our son is now in the 2nd grade. He is in a regular class and is doing well. He has a full time aid with him in school to keep him on track. But our hope is he will not need this for long.