I have a completely adorable three and a half year old child who has autism. He is the center of our world and brings us much joy and happiness everyday. Not to say "Total Cuteness" (aka Aidan) doesn't have meltdowns on a fairly frequent basis which can take their toll on you some days... not to mention the strain it has on your relationship. But we find real joy in life from our son's triumphs. We're looking forward to the day that "Total Cuteness" says his first words.
Prior to the diagnosis I knew something was unusual about my son's behaviour. I was concerned that Aidan didn't display joint attention, "danced" by moving his arms stiffly at his sides when excited, and turned over trucks to play with their wheels. As time went on he stopped answering to his name. He no longer was pointing and waving. He seemed happiest when by himself. However, friends and GPs all said there was nothing to worry about. In fact, some became quite angry with me for suggesting that something might be amiss.
Aidan was diagnosed one year ago at the age of two and a half. To be honest it felt like the end of the world. I cried for three days straight. His father was angry and refused to believe it. It wasn't until I pressured him into reading the book "Ten Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew" that he understood that Aidan did in fact have autism.
When our tears dried and our anger faded we sought out more information about the disorder, related therapies and available resources. I felt overwhelmed despite my previous background working in the system as an Employment Counsellor to persons with special needs. Nothing could have prepared me for this journey.
A formal diagnosis from three specific professionals was necessary before the service providers would agree to see Aidan. This involved a speech therapist, a pediatrician and a child psychologist diagnosing our son. We went the private route as the government funded resources would have delayed the process by a half a year or more. Early intervention makes a huge difference in the lives of children with autism so several thousands of dollars and a couple of months later we had our formal diagnosis!
While we were waiting for the formal diagnosis we has found an organization which had a preschool for children with Autism - the first of it's kind in our province - that followed ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis) principles and also supervised ABA in-home programs. We were added to their wait list. Their availability and our formal diagnosis arrived at approximately the same time. Each week Aidan attends the preschool three mornings and has between 20 to 30 hours of ABA in-home therapy.
We recently added a once a week Movement Therapy session to his schedule. This involves using the swing as a reward for trying out other gym activities such as, the trampoline and the balance beam. Aidan loves his gym time! Once he becomes more comfortable with this new therapy we will increase it to twice a week. We're praying that this will develop his confidence and coordination skills as he can still topple over when walking.
Aidan is also very much into music! We're looking for a Music Therapist to encourage his continued growth with joint attention and modeling. In addition we want to increase his understanding and appreciation of music and musical instruments. Thus far we can not find anyone available but the search continues.
The last year has flown by. Somehow my spouse and I have survived the chaos and feel like we're accepting and adapting to this new reality. We see our child blossoming. He now cuddles with us, seeks out his Nannie to read a book with him and desires social interaction from his peers.
Aidan is our only child so we're lucky as this is the only reality we know and we can dedicate all our time to him. On the downside our son doesn't have any peers to model and learn from in his home.
We feel very blessed to have this child in our lives and are humbled by the courage and the hard work he puts forth each and every day. Aidan has enriched our lives by showing us that true happiness is being together and celebrating victories. Happiness for us is not derived from workplace accomplishments, material things or vacations or cars. Good thing as there isn't a lot of money flying around our house given all the therapies. No complaints. We're just enjoying the wild card we've been dealt.
We're optimistic about Aidan's future. We're overjoyed about how far he has come and look forward to his future accomplishments.
