When my son was first diagnosed 12 years ago there was not much information to guide us through. His doctors told us that he would never have any functional language, never attend a "regular school" and would have to be institutionalized by adulthood. That didn't fly with me. I found out that ABA therapy showed remarkable success in kids with autism, unfortunately at the tune of $160,000 per year we weren't going to be able to give our child that kind of leg up. That was also not acceptable to me so I flew to NY where a high school friend of mine had a therapist for her son. They taught me the program and I came home and trained my other kids, family, friends and we began the daunting task of providing my son with 40 hours of therapy per week. He also attended an autistic preschool that gave him an additional 10 hours of therapy per week. He graduated from pre-school as the only child that would be moving up to a "regular" kindergarten without an aid, and he started at the age he was supposed to start school, 6. The first two years we found out that they were not even following his IEP because the teachers were not aware that he was autistic!! He's walked through many doors that were supposed to be closed to him and in the fall he'll be walking through another one, high school. "Regular" high school. I've often been told "if you didn't tell me he was autistic, I would never have known"! There IS hope!! It takes alot of hard work, but you CAN get there!! Don't lose faith, and never let anyone tell you that your child WILL NEVER....

Joelle Virgilio
Poughkeepsie, NY