My Son is No Longer on the Autism Spectrum

I just realized that I haven't posted any updates on my vaccine-injured son in a while. A viewer brought this to light recently!

Where to begin....On September 3rd my son had his reevaluation performed by Early Intervention. Saying that they were shocked is putting it mildly. In fact, they even told me that had it not been for our "official diagnosis" as of January 2009 from a medical teaching facility, he would no longer be eligible for services through their program. He was even advanced as much as 3 1/2 - 4 yrs old in some areas of testing. To sum it up - my son has lost his Autism diagnosis as far as they are concerned! We still do have to go back in January for an official confirmation of this at the medical teaching facility, but as far as we are all concerned, I have my son back. He will lead a normal life.

My son is now talking non-stop, running, engaging in play, and his favorite word of course now, is "No". Ah, the terrible two's!! It is so welcome in our house! Just the other day we were sitting on the couch at 7:50 am. He told me that he wanted to watch his "choo-choo" program. Thomas the train is normally on at 12:30 pm, but I found out that morning that it also airs at 8:00 am. So, I told him that it would be on next. Wouldn't you know - 10 minutes later when a commercial aired, he reminded me that his "choo-choo" program was on and that I must change the channel! For a toddler to remember this 10 minutes later is remarkable. Now, for a toddler who is supposedly on the spectrum to remember this is just unheard of if he is not normally used to seeing it on in the morning in the first place!

My little guy is also very familiar with facial expressions. He loves to say and show me at the same time with his expressions. "Mama, I'm mad. I'm happy! I'm sad." Most children who suffer from Autism or ADD/ADHD are not able to gage when a person is upset because they cannot read the person's expression. I think back to when my teenager was little and how I would be so mad at him because punishment didn't work. He just didn't understand when I was upset with him and only became more confused as to why I was punishing him. Nothing worked. It makes me really sad to think about what he has gone through. I didn't know any better at the time. What I do know is that a lot of children who recover from Autism may be left with ADD/ADHD as a result of their injury. I don't believe this will be an issue with my little one.

Don't get me wrong. We still have a long journey ahead of us (speech and gross motor), but he is a typical toddler now. When I tell people what we were faced with just 14 months ago, they just stare in disbelief. "Your child banged his head? Your child grunted? Your child wouldn't look at people in the eye? Spinning in circles? Come on! Really??" they say. "Yes, really!" I tell them with a huge smile on my face.