Our Journey with Autism begins

I have thought for a long time that our youngest, Jesse may be Autistic. It was things like him not wanting to be held and arching his back when he was, lack of eye contact and loss of skill that he had as well as his need to spin, trouble with change, need for routines and focus in things that other kids didn't even notice. I asked our pediatrician a few times if Jesse could be and was told we should wait until he was 3 years old.

My suggestion for anyone going through this and wondering "could it be" is to keep asking. Find another DR. Do NOT settle. You don't have to wait until a child is 3. The thing that makes the BIGGEST impact is early intervention!!!

We are involved in our area's PAT program and our leader had noticed that Jesse lacked in many areas as well and not making eye contact. In fact he only started making eye contact about a year ago at the age of 2. She refered us to our states early intervention program. Jesse started with speech therapy and occupational therapy and was diagnosised with Sensory Processing Disorder in June. Then our OT told us about a DR that through the program would evalutate Jesse for Autism. So we decided to do that.

Jesse was diagnosised with mild to moderate Autism Spectrum Disorder this week. We don't have a full report yet... that will come sometime next week. The DR said that if we keep working with Jesse like we have then he should, in a few years, be main streamed in school with little to no apparent Autism.

The DR was great and took a lot of time with us. She said that its rare that both parents are on board when Autism is suspected and that it will make such a big difference for Jesse. We are trying to stay positive but at the same time we are dealing with our emotions as well. I have been on an emotional roller coaster the past few days even though I was sure that I had already come to terms with it. There is just so much to learn and so many things to think about.

I have started reading books and looking into resources to help us on our journey. One thing that was suggested was to start journaling, not just to keep track of Jesse's progress but also to help me deal with the emotions that come with being a parent of an Autistic child. My hope is that this blog will help with both of those things but also be a way for Jesse to know that no matter where he is in his progress we love him for who he is .... no matter what.