In November 2003, my son was born. He was a skinny little baby who cried a lot. Since I was a new mom, I didn't think anything of his crying except that it was normal to me. My son happily played, hugged everyone, and seemed fine. He responded to people, tried everything at least once, but we started to notice he did things on his terms. Over the next few years, we noticed he was behind on a few things. He never crawled..he rolled around until he learned how to pull himself up. But he seemed to be communicating fine, talking, laughing, crying, etc. When we did air travel, he cried alot on the plane, anything new seemed to be a big effort for him.
In the first week of Kindergarten, a meeting was held at school where they first told me he was autistic. I didn't believe school because he talked so much. He seemed to understand everything that was said to him. He liked physical contact, etc. I dismissed the school. In first grade, we had him evaluated by his primary doctor who just said he was behind but not to worry about it. In second grade, I was urged again to have him see a specialist because something wasn't right. During all of this time, I wasn't aware of Aspergers. I started doing research on it and realized he had just about every trait. I had him evaluated by a private therapist who diagnosed the Aspergers. She continues to work with him on social skills. He has 2 hours a day of social skills assistance at school as well.
It's a struggle at times to deal with his outbursts, his non-understanding of what we are saying, and his inability to talk to the kids at school. I hope in time he will learn to understand people. He is smart, funny, caring.
Los Angeles, CA