Welcome to Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders!!

Dawn - posted on 11/08/2011

Hi everyone, I am a grandmother of an 8yr old that was diagnosed with ASD at the age of 2. As he and his Mom both lived with me I was able to obseve him first hand. He was "different" from birth. His mom felt like he didn't love her. (this was her first child) He didn't like to be held and was 6 months old before he smiled. We started to notice that he would go off into a staring spell, we called it zoning out. What it turned out to be was diagnosed as Abscence Seizures. this progressed into intractable epilepsy. Epilepsy is a common companion to ASD. He received an implant when he was 4 or 5 that controls the seizures, a real miracle! He never spoke and was very frusterated and had many "meltdowns". You really couldn't take him anywhere that was over stimulating. Hewould go into overload. Life was very difficult for my daughter but she is a woman of great love, faith and courage. She has been the strength my grandson could rely on. He is now almost 9 yrs old. He is in LD classes at school. The most promising thing I can tell everyone with children that don't have speech is that my grandson began speaking at 8. It just keeps progressing. He even has a sense of humor. He smiles and tells me the most awful knock-knock jokes. He has a way to go and I'm not saying his speech is perfect. But... the ability to communicate has reduced his frustration and thus his meltdowns. His tolerance for noise and stimulation has greatly increased. I don't know if he will ever be living independently but the difference in him in the last 2 yrs give me hope that perhaps he will. These kids are beautiful and they give you a special appreciation for the slightest bit of improvement. I do have a bit of insight you might heed. Even if they are not speaking they are listening. They are aware of what you are saying and are taking in eveything. When you talk in front of them be careful of what you say, especially if you are talking about them. I saw my grandson's head drop and his whole demenor slump when I told a clerk in a store that he was "autistic", it was still almost a year before he began to speak, but he understood. I never said it again. You have no idea what it is like to hear,"Grandma I love you"!!

Mitzi - posted on 09/27/2011

Hi My name is Mitzi. My 4 soon to be 5 yr old son was just diagnosed with ASD. I came here looking for support because there isn't a support group where I live.

Tammy - posted on 08/27/2011

I have a 10 yr. old daughter diagnosed with autism. We had some genetic testing done, because she is adopted, and our school thought she might have fragile X syndrome or Williams. Both of those came back negative, but she did have some deletions and multiples of some chromosomes, that validated an autism diagnosis. Tara has always had "quirks", I call them. Nothing big, most with of coarse staying on a schedule. Being a "hoarder". They way she eats, and what she eats. But the biggest challenge for us, is she has almost panic attacks on trying anything new. Or going to the Dr. or Dentist. Even if she knows there is going to be nothing done to her that will hurt.
At school she has always been hard to evaluate. She may answer your questions or she may not. Math is her greatest challenge. And her handwritting. Some of the behaviors are getting better. She did go on the Ferris Wheel this summer at a fair with a friend. I never thought she would do it, but she has this saying she says to herself to calm her down, she tells herself, "Tara calm your fears'. And she did it! I was so proud of her, she even rode it a couple more times. Now to most people this is not a big deal. But for us it was a huge step.
Looking foreword to hearing more stories from other moms.

Kaleigh - posted on 03/06/2011

Hello I'm Kaleigh, my three year old son was diagnosed with ASD last week. We're waiting on the services they're setting us up with I've read a little on the sick kids website but its very overwhelming. They haven't said where he his on the spectrum so it's very confusing but I know it must be on the less severe side I mean no one would look at him and think immediately oh he's autistic and my hubby still refuses to accept the diagnosis, he keeps saying there's nothing wrong with him he just is a little intense. I was told it would be a good idea to find a support group of some kind so that's why I'm here, nice to meet you ladies.

Vicky - posted on 03/21/2010

I have a 13 year old son he has been diagnosed with ASD, Autism, mild M.R. ADHD and a seizure disorder. I have 4 children and two grand sons. I live in Cali. in the Mojave desert.

Melanie - posted on 03/19/2010

My son was the same way at that age. He still can figure out anything to do with computers, even stuff i can't. my advice to you is read up on anything you can get your hands on about Autism Spectrum Disorders. That's what I did and it really helped me accept what was going on with my son. That was the hardest thing for me to do. I kept telling myself, there is nothing wrong with my son.

Melanie - posted on 02/27/2010

My son was exactly the same way at that age. He was diagnosed at about 5 1/2 years. The biggest issue we had to deal with was the inability to deal with change. The one main thing we did was make a daily schedule for Max. I bought a dry erase board and wrote down times for activities he did at school, homework time, and baths. We went over the schedule every day when he woke up so he didn't have any surprises. Eventually we would change it up just a tad to get him used to unexpected changes during the day. This really helped him cope. I hope it helps you some.

Sue - posted on 02/25/2010

Hi! My name is Sue and I have a 5 year old son that hasn't been officially diagnosed but his pediatrician believes he has Autism Spectrum Disorder. Tommy is a very smart little boy. He loves anything to do with letters, numbers, shapes, anything educational, he also can figure out how to work any computer he comes across! He does not adapt to change well, and when asked simple questions like what did you get for Christmas or what happened at school today he doesn't respond. We are on an 18 month waiting list for him to be seen by a specialist and it's very frustrating because I want to help him now. He has started going to a new pre K part time that deals with special needs and that has helped him greatly, I just feel like I can be doing more. I'd love any suggestions.