"Mommy"

Today when I came home from the store, Mikey ran to me and said "Mommy"! To me it's amazing, wonderful, and exciting!

I've been waiting and longing and trying to hear "Mama "or "Mommy" for a long time! I know he's almost 3 but he is just now starting to talk.

I was worried when he was 2 and didn't speak. We thought he might have a hearing problem because he didn't turn to us when we called or even screamed his name. People told me that they thought he was deaf. We had his hearing tested and it came back normal. I found out through Internet research that he had many of the red flag warning signs of autism.

He received a diagnosis of PDD-NOS (some autistic signs but not all) in June. We saw one of the best doctors in this field (Dr. Mary Megson) and she gave us hope that he would recover from this. She put him on many supplements and we all work with him daily to help him learn to interact and speak.

He has stopped banging his head, being overly obsessive about little things, and the horrendous tantrums (well, we still do get these sometimes). He is less picky about food, has better eye contact than before, shows some interest in playing with others and is so much more engaged in general than he was 6 months ago.

I believe prayer has helped him.

I believe autistic children can be helped and they can recover.

Mikey is most likely going to a special ed. preschool in the New Year. We think this will help him.

God bless all the parents with autistic children and all their children.

A video about a little boy named Drew who is on the autism spectrum. Sad but beautiful video for me. It makes me cry every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZvSuRt1_LU

If you have a little more time, here's another video with more info. on the signs of autism. It is at epidemic proportions now affecting 1 in 150 children. (Less than 20 years ago, it was 1 in 10,000!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEWOXfL4GIY&feature=related