Noah, autism and early struggles to growing success

Shana

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My son Noah was born January, 2006. He was born a healthy 7 lb. 6 oz. 20 In. long beautiful boy. He started getting minor illnesses around the age of 3 months. By the age of 15 months he had, had 11 ear infections and a bad case of the Rotavirus right around the age of 15 months. He only said a few words at that age, but those words got lost along the way and Noah retrieved into a very repetitive, easily agitated 2 year old. I was worried, and by the time he was 2 years and 5 months he was diagnosed with Autism... no high functioning, no low functioning, just DX = AUTISM.

We had Speech, Occupational and Developmental Therapy once a week until he was 3. They came to our home and it was provided by the State. Anyone in Indiana with a child developmentally behind before the age of 3 gets this help no matter what their income may be. So they came and it HELPED, and I loved watching other people connect with my youngster. He got to where he really appreciated them also.

At the age of 3 in-home therapy stopped and Noah started Early Childhood, a preschool for special needs kids. There he learned to take turns better, sit in a chair for a longer period of time and play along side other peers. Everyone involved right down to the bus driver fell in love with Noah and made our first year so much easier than I anticipated. The entire first year he was still non-verbal.

By the 2nd year, we changed Early Childhood preschools because of his speech needs being greater than what the previous school could focus on. This new school would concentrate mostly on speech and social skills and not so much on academics. School started in August, and in September Noah said his first word – “BUS” – over and over too. But man, was it awesome to see this little guy get there.

Once he started, within a few months he was saying and showing us all the stuff he had learned, but could not speak it. He knows ALL his colors, ABC's, counts to 16, recognizes his name on paper. It's not even been a year and he speaks in sentences. He is only 5 months behind on his receptive language and 7 months behind on his expressive language. He is now completely potty trained and, yes, at 4-1/2 he should have been a year ago, but you see, Noah has taught me that even though he may not be learning what I "want" him to learn at that very moment, he is still ALWAYS learning from EVERY experience.

I struggle with wondering if autism was something Noah was supposed to have. Like what if I could have changed it. BUT there can't be any “what ifs” in life, not in our lives anyway. We are lucky in reality, with or without Autism affecting us

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