My beautiful baby boy Ryan who is on the verge of turning 3 in January 2014! His first year of life he hit all his miles stones besides talking.
When he was 15 months old, and still hadn't tried to start putting together any words, so I got a little nervous. I reached out to other moms and their advice was to call Early Invention. We did the global evaluation and I came to realize he was behind on a lot of things. It was so hard to hear. I guess I must have been blinded to the truth, or the fact he is my first child and didn't know any better. We decided to start with speech and developmental therapy, which then led into occupational therapy, behavior counseling, and developmental playgroup. It is definitely rough juggling all that, setting up meetings, and working a full time job. We occasionally take a week break from it all to get time to spend with each other.
His sensory issues is what I think plays a huge part in all of this. The flapping, the constant need to be moving, and the urge to bite. Thank goodness for occupational therapy!! In October 2013 he was diagnosed with "moderate" autism. You would think thru all we have been doing therapy wise, and basically knowing what they were going to tell us that it wouldn't hurt so bad. But it did. But man oh man how special my sweet son is! He has his strengths in so many areas and now is trying to say more than 20 words! He is a wiz on the IPad, and a very loving boy.
I wouldn't have guessed that my child would be autistic. I wouldn't of ever thought I'd be as busy and have such a complicated life as i have now. But I wouldn't change my son for the world! I was missing something in my life before him, and then I found "My missing puzzle piece!"
He is my son, and I am the proudest and the luckiest mom there could be!
Pekin, IL
