This is my son Brendan. Brendan is 4 years old and was diagnosed at the age of 3 with PDD-NOS. My wife and I noticed at at about 18 months old that he had hit a learning "wall". He would fade into his own world for hours at a time and didn't seem to respond to anyone's voice. We had friends and family ask us if he was deaf and tell us that he has a hearing problem of some sort. We knew that this was not an issue due to the fact he could hear a pin drop from across the room. As he got older around 2.5 years of age we were tossing back and forth the notion that our baby boy had Autism. We were in great denial and thought he would "grow out of it". He was enrolled in the Early Childhood Intervention program in our town and when he turned 3 years old was enrolled in the Early Headstart Program at a local school. He attends bi weekly speech therapy sessions and is progressing very well. He is up to 3-4 word sentences and is slowly being able to tell us what he wants without us having to guess his needs. Brendan just turned 4 in April and is going to be going to school "full time" from 8-2 everyday starting in the fall. He is a very spirited and loves doing art and constructing LEGO creations. Brendan loves water and is drawn to it. When we take a bath or go swimming he gets lost in the water and immerses himself underwater to get sound deprivation. He is HYPO sensitive and loves being touched and hugged as well as doing the touching and hugging. The picture above is from his first visit to the beach ever. He continues to amaze everyone around him everyday and is teaching our family and friends about autism. We love our Bubbysaur and will never give up and continue to learn about autism and our son.

Ben Steele
Abilene, TX