Coping with Autism

This is a narrative essay that should be between 650 - 900 words. Again thank you so much for your help with this I just don’t have the time to give it the attention that it deserves.

I may not need to tell you this but, it, needs to have compound and complex, short and long sentences. Thanks again.

I will never forgot that April day in 2000, it changed my family’s life forever. On this day we found out that our bright and beautiful 3 Ѕ year old son was Autistic. I will never forget those words as long as I live. I’m so sorry but your son is Autistic. It was like someone had just ripped my heart out of my chest. As I look at him my eyes filled with tears. In a flash everything that we had envisioned for his future was gone. What would his future be like now? There were so many unanswered questions and I didn’t know where to turn to next. Even with all of this I knew in the back of my mind months before we were able to set up this evaluation that there was something wrong with my baby. By the time he was 18 months old he just stop in his development in speech, and socialization. Two of his favorite things that he loved to do was work puzzles and line up all of his hot wheel cars. I later learned that these were key symptoms of Autism as well. The only thing that I was rally concerned about was his speech delay which his pediatrician just kept putting me off by saying that boys developed slower than girls.

By the time that I actually convinced him that something needed to be done we had lost 1 Ѕ to 2 precious years of therapy that could not be gotten back.

After the initial shock wore off, I spent countless hours at the library reading everything I could on Autism. I didn’t realize how broad of a spectrum this disorder is. The only up to this point that I knew about Autism was what I had seen in the movie RainMan.

The next few months are a blur. By June Ethan was in a preschool specifically designed for Autistic children. I soon found out that we were very fortunate to be living in Gwinnett County, GA. They have one of the best if not the best special needs programs in the state. Ethan was going to public school which was a plus.

In the few weeks he was in summer school he improved by leaps and bounds. He went from barely talking to starting to talk once again. I cried the first time he said Mommy again. Still till this day when I look back on those special moments that he did twice, first when he was around 9 - 12 months of age and then again when he was 4 - 5 years of age, my heart just swells and my eyes fill with tears.

He started Pre-K at the same school with the same teacher whom Ethan loved. He continued to improve by leaps and bounds. The school year just flew by as they always do. I was devastated to see him leave his Pre-K class where he had gotten off to such a great start.

My fears were soon calmed. He would have his next teacher for 3 years. He was now in a K-2 Autism class where he just kept improving. He had started to use a PECS book which he only used for a few months. His speech improved so much that he could now communicate with us without his picture book. Thanks to the outside speech and occupational therapy that he was receiving twice a week not including what he was receiving in school. My little boy was finally starting to shine once again. I started to let myself think of what his future might be once again.

He only qualified for Summer School the one year. After