Our son Andrew was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder when he was almost 5 years old after being mis-diagnosed when he was 3 with only a learning disability. In addition to ASD he has low muscle tone and sensory processing disorder. At the time of his diagnosis he had very little eye contact, would never respond to his name, had no interest in other children, didn’t have any imaginative play, didn’t talk, wave, point or kiss. Where did our little boy go? He had all of the right developmental milestones when he was a baby, but somewhere along the way we lost him.
Autism is a lifelong developmental disability with difficulties in social interaction, impaired communication, restricted and repetitive interests and behaviours and sensory sensitivities. In 1980 1 in 5000 was diagnosed Autistic. Today 1 in 110 children is diagnosed with Autism and 1 in 70 boys. This is now a World Wide Epidemic.
Since being diagnosed we have treated Andrew’s Autism with the biomedical approach. He has been in Physical Therapy since he was 1, Speech Therapy since he was 2 and Occupational Therapy since he was 3. He is now 7 years old, still in diapers, still non-verbal and still a very special little boy. He now has eye contact, he even initiates it. He is drawn to other children, plays appropriately (most of the time) and is making sounds. A “mama” or “da” here and there, but it is progress. We are on the right road. The road to recovery.
With all of Andrew’s therapies, all organic gluten free/casein free diet, detoxing of heavy metals, vitamins and supplements, doctor visits and prescriptions, the bills add up really fast. I am a mother on a mission to heal my son and I’ll do anything possible to help him. I have watched him in Speech Therapy work on an iPad and I know that this is the assistive device that can help him Learn and Communicate with us.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Smart Apps for Kids is giving a way an iPad Mini!! Click link below to enter.
Good Luck!
