Please Raise Autism Awareness

How Autism has touched my family

In the spring of 1998 my son was diagnosed with Autism. My story isn’t that unusual. Like many other children that are diagnosed with Autism he appeared to be a fairly normal child up until eighteen months. Then his developing speech mysteriously stopped . He regressed from once saying "Dada" and "Mama" to sounds that weren’t recognizable as any type of word. He also lost interest in people and began repetitively spinning the wheels on his sister’s bicycle whenever he went outside. I had once read books about working with special needs children and I recalled some of the symptoms of Autism from those. I asked our family doctor for a referral and he got me into contact with our local ESD.

The ESD did preliminary testing on development and it was decided that my son had a speech delay and therefor qualified for services. He was at a 6 to 9 month level of speech development at age two. I was concerned that it wasn’t a simple speech delay and asked that he be seen by an Autism specialist. After observations and interviews it was decided that my son in fact was autistic.

Since then he has been receiving special schooling. There has been no miraculous cure but he has shown improvement. Now at age five he’s much less withdrawn. He likes to play with other children sometimes and even participates in impromptu games of tag with his older sister. He is still nonverbal but he’s a healthy, very active, five year old with sparkling blue eyes and his great grandma’s dimples.

Update: 9/2/01 My son has begun to potty train over the summer! This is a huge step for us and a vast improvement after almost six years of diapers and pull-ups. It is not unusual for an autistic child to potty train late and it has taken him this long to be ready. He cannot tell us when he has to go but we try to time it and take him to the bathroom every so often. There are certain physical signs he gives that he needs to go and I try to watch for these cues. He's been very good about being dry even on trips to town.

As he ages public acceptance is becomming a problem. When he's hyper or noisey people overlooked it when he was smaller but now that he is almost six people are getting to be a problem. Even when I tell them my child has problems they don't understand. I've been harassed until I had to leave a McDonalds resteraunt. I was also accosted by a woman at a Sharies resteraunt because my son wasn't sitting still in the seat. In all actuality he was on very good behavior at the time. He's compulsivly active at home to the point where he has broken his foot before. At the time she was complaining, he was bouncing in the seat but staying in one place and very happily eating his food. No ear piercing shrieks or anything. I couldn't have been prouder of him. It's an amazing improvement on his part.

We've come a very long way. In a few days he'll be starting Kindergarden. I'm really looking forward to it. I think he's going to do well.

10/16/03 My son is now in the second grade and going on eight. He has improved a lot but still does not speak normally. He is beginning to say things repetativly such as "Get ready, get set, go " His teacher at school taught him that but he uses it for everything from wanting to be tickled to asking for another french fry.

He loves to ride horses and is now going with my Dad on trail rides. Unfortunatly Oregon weather being what it is we've now hit rain. Hopefully we'll have a nice weekend soon.

I'm better handeling the public. When I go out with him to eat I ask to be seated where he is not next to anyone and therefor won't be as much of a bother. He enjoys our outings and especially loves Wal-Mart. He now walks with me like a big boy and I don't have to restrain him in a shopping cart. Progress is slow but he is maturing and getting better.

7/31/04 I did a short interview with my older child who is now 11. I asked her thoughts on her brother and wrote down her perspective. Some of her answers surprised me and others made me cry. Her page is called Trina's story. I provided a link to it at the bottom of this page.

For more information on Autism please click on one of the links provided below.