When Albert was born he was perfect! He made all of his milestones at the appropriate time. He even started to speak early. But when his speech became slurry at four we had him tested for an IEP. They diagnosed him with speech and language delay, but they asked me to complete a GARS assessment. I couldn't believe that they thought he might have autism! I mean he never lined up his toys, or played with the wheels of his toys and he never banged his head. He did however spend hour creating perfect Lincoln log villages and his conversations were always one sided. He is an August baby and we opted to have him repeat preschool with a private school, with group speech therapy through his elementary school and two hours of private speech therapy through our private insurance every week. When he started kindergarten he was almost six and we were blessed with the best kindergarten teacher a who had lots of experience with autism. She requested and evaluation to change his IEP. We then made an appointment with a developmental specialist and after driving over two hundred miles he diagnosed him in less than five minutes with autism. He wanted to put him on several different types of medicine and made a very rude statement about having him placed in a mainstream classroom, that he needed a classic autistic classroom. He was excelling in his class and his teacher disagreed so we waited nine months for a second opinion. Thank God for second opinions! His new doctor disagreed and stated he was high functioning that he needs to be mainstreamed. He still struggles socially but he has some really great friends and last week he was accepted into the Elementary Honor Society with fourteen other students. He has earned all A's again this semester with no special education considerations.

Jill Diaz
Sierra Vista, AZ