This is Kaiden. From birth I knew something was different about him, I just could not put my finger on it. The first 4-5 months he was developing ahead of other infants his age. All of a sudden once he reached 5 months he started falling a little behind. He started sitting up at 7 months, army crawling at 8 months, pulling himself up into a standing position around 11-12 months old, and he did not start walking till he was just about 15 months old. Kaiden's speech was also delayed. When he was 2 years old I enrolled him in Early Intervention. When he turned 3 we enrolled him in preschool. During the first year of his preschool I was asked by 3 people if he had autism, at first I kind of brushed it off to the side. That is not what I wanted my child to be labeled as. As the preschool year progressed, we started seeing the behaviors more. Kaiden was running around in circles, flapping his hands, having melt downs, texture issues, having a hard time handling change of environment. When Kaiden had a melt down on Halloween when trying to trick or treat around the school, it was then I was ready for answers.

After talking to Kaiden's Pediatrician, we thought the best plan was to have him evaluated. The neuro doctor ended up observing Kaiden for 6-7 months before we got our diagnosis of High Functioning Autism. The neuro doctor wanted Kaiden to have some lab tests ran to see what the underlying cause was to him having Autism. Come to find out Kaiden has a deletion of the 15q chromosome, and a duplicate of the 22q chromosome.

It just amazes me that he has been through so much from finding out that he had eczema, allergies, asthma, selective IgA deficiency, autism; to now also have a deletion and duplication of 2 chromosomes. Knowing that he has all this going on with him, and he just keeps on tracking. Autism can definitely open up your eyes to things you did not see before.

Anonymous
Wingo, KY