"When my five year old son Jack was 22 months old he could only say 'mama', 'dada' and 'water'. In having him as my first child I wasn't exactly sure of how 'normal' this was and asked tons of opinions, many people just said, 'oh all kids develop differently, he'll come around" and so on. Soon after I referred him to speech pathology, and after doing the initial assessment I went home with a sad heart and news to tell my husband that our son had a language development level equivalent to a 9 month old. Following this we took Jack weekly to see his speech and language pathologist. Soon enough came the hardest news I've yet had to receive as a parent. The speech pathologist thought Jack may be autistic. He had very few words, he did not respond to his name, he couldn't follow out simple commands such as 'go put the cup on the counter ', he had fleeting eye contact and he stimmed quite a bit. He was fascinated with light switches, space and airplanes. He threw temper tantrums when he couldn't get his own way (different though from other kids his age), he HATED transitioning from one activity to another and he was the pickiest eater alive. We had huge troubles with potty training and he had more allergies than you could shake a stick at.
The following step was months apon months of waiting, referrals and doctors appointments. When we finally got the diagnosis in October of 2009, we were somewhat relieved. I did,however go home and cry for hours... I felt like my world had crashed. You can say you feel relieved because there is finally a reason your son acts the way he does but you'll never know what it feels like to get news like this until you receive it. The thoughts that now ran through my mind were" will he be able to be in school with all the kids", will he play sports, play with kids, will he talk"? Well I have good news for all you moms and dads out there... With early intervention you can what I believe is "cure" your child. My pediatrician in fact says that Jack wouldn't have enough symptoms today to be "classified " as the traditional autistic child. He can talk in full sentences,( I think he may talk more that me sometimes:)
he can play normally, read books at five years old, problem solve,
ect.... He is doing above and beyond better than we ever could have
hoped for. He doesn't even need a one on one worker in school at time.
He is completely mainstreamed into the regular kindergarten class.
His teacher told me last week he is actually above average in several
areas and she has no social concerns at this point. Jack had two years
of IBI, (intensive behavioral therapy) and private tutoring... And lots
of prayers. He is also on a dairy free/ as much gluten free as I can
do, free diet. He has come SO far and I hope in reading this you can
get some real hope because I believe as parents as long as we advocate
and utilize the resources out there we can do so much for our autistic
children.... They are SO smart and we need to help them develop
communication tools that they can use based on their needs."Her story sounded so familiar to me, I found myself in tears after a few lines. And while I know not every child will rise to that level, some will. It reminded me of an awesome T shirt I came across a little while ago. ( I tried to get the picture, but Ebay won't let me:)
The T shirt said...
I have Autism, but go ahead, set the bar high.....I can make it!
And that is more of what HOPE is made of. Thank you again Leslie for sharing your story with us.
:) Rae
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