I always fondly remember my son, Donovan (now 2 years old), as a happy baby. It wasn't until he was at least 7 months old that I realized something was different about him. He watched his feet twirl and was delayed in sitting up, crawling, and walking. He received physical therapy and I was told that it took him longer to do all of those things because he has low muscle tone. He walked unassisted at 15 months old. A few months went by and he still wasn't progressing with his speech. At the next assessment, he qualified for speech, occupational, and developmental therapy. At this point, Donovan's paternal grandmother had mentioned Autism. I mentioned this to our 2 friends (involved in elementary education) who agreed that he had characteristics of Autism (dangling objects, lacking in speech, didn't pretend play, afraid of animals, toe walking, need to step on objects, etc.). We then started the referral process to Dr. Morton in Champaign, IL. We luckily only had about a 5 month wait from the time we got the paperwork sent in to the day of our evaluation. Our evaluation was December 4, 2013. Dr. Morton and his student were very thorough and did a great job assessing the situation. Donovan was diagnosed as PDD-NOS, which means that he has some characteristics of Autism, but not enough to specifically call it Autism. The new DSM-V removes Asperger's and PDD-NOS and just diagnoses as ASD. Luckily, as of right now, the old DSM can still be used to diagnose. I knew in my heart that he would be diagnosed that day and I think that's why I accepted it so easily. I knew that no matter what happened, he's the greatest blessing in my life and I'd do whatever I possibly could to help him. God blessed me by choosing me to be Donovan's mother. I couldn't ask for a better son. We may have challenges ahead of us as he starts school next year, but nothing is impossible with God. My favorite phrase right now is "Differently Abled, Not Disabled".

Ellie Boling
Irving, IL