mscat40

I have a son that has a diagnoses of autism with cognitive delays. He started the evaluations on him at 3 1/5 and at four years old he had the diagnoses. He was not talking functional speech until age 5. So he is verbal. We went to a lot of professionals , Neuro dr'sw, child psycholigists, child psychatrsts, the school district did their own evaluation. he was also extrmemly hyperactive and aggressive. The school distrcit did not even know if their was a propper placement for him. He ran away from the profeesionals, and they had to chase him down in the parking lot. He also ran away fron the neurolgist. He had not fear either, soi was very scary when he was little.
He wa splaced in a special prechool program for young children with disabillites, We had a wonderful, understand teacher. Thr Psychatrist placed him on medication at only 4 yrs old, it was that severe , he was a danger to himself as well as others because of the running away.
before speech develped he only repeated the last few words he heard someone say. He sounded like a parrrot. He also had a lot of stemming behaviors. Hand flappin a lot , and flipping his fingers close to his eyes, he liked to jump up and down, and spin in circles .
The school kept in him special day classrooms, and at one time suggested it was the low IQ that was nore of a problem then the autism. I did not believe that. Fortuntately we moved to a very tiny town, He was in fourth grade . But, they did not have a lot os special needs programs in town, was bullied a lot there.
I got him into anther program , but then he had to ride the bus each morning 16;15 AM. He started that program when he entered middle school.
Thankfully it was the right sdc program and now was in a great program to meet his needs.
He his now 17years old and getting ready to graduate from high school! He will recieve a certifficate of completion, not a regular diploma. After that he is going into anther program for young adults who are 18-22 yrs old.
In 09 he was re evaluated by a neuropchycholgist through the regional center, and still recieved the diagnoses as autism , and his IQ testing fell between extremely low range .
I have raise my son as a single mother all his life. Time flies , I can't beleive my son is ready to graduate, even if it is just a H>S completion. it is still a big deal. I have been through so much with my son,and we have managed to stay on our feet. Some autistic children fair out better then others, time will tell. I have seen many autistic children and young adults. Some verbal some not.
My son is my life and I love him very very much