When Eric was 4 weeks old we used to comment about what a "watcher" he was. He watched his swing move back and forth the ceiling fan spin and he had an undying love for Mickey Mouse. We used to say that it looked like he was studying and taking things apart with his mind the way he looked at things. We used to kid about how he wasn't like other babies, didn't waste time on toys, instead preferring to shred magazines or swing. Or destroy things. He was just different, for reasons we did not know. At 9 months old he wasn't crawling and we were referred to early intervention, at which time he did not qualify, at 13 months old he was referred again and he qualified for speech. He had a great caring speech therapist. I know early intervention gets a lot of flack, but she truly was great. We had suspected Autism since I left his evaluation and went home and googled. "Acts deaf, but isn't" and Autism kept popping up. As the husband and I were reading through the "symptoms" we had a sinking pit in our stomachs. We called and made an appointment with our pediatrician for the next day. Who also said he had concerns, 7 months later we were in the developmental specialist office, who said it was just a speech delay, 6 months after that she said speech delay for sensory integration issues. We eventually packed up and moved to another state, finally got his severe Autism diagnosis. We will continue to immerse ourselves into as much therapy as we can possibly afford and see what happens, only time will tell. He is still our crazy little boy, who just happens to be non verbal, and ridiculously smart. And a little different. But, in the end. He's still just Eric. Autism doesn't define him and it never will . It's only a small part of who he is. And he is awesome. :)

Britney Keck
Bartlesville, OK