Things that I Did for Love

When my son showed sign out of the ordinary, I just brush it off and told myself that it is just part of growing up. I couldn't tell the difference because I have no one to compare and he is, afterall, my first child. My parents told me that his behaviour is just a normal one for a two year old, and since he is a boy it is but normal that he would be delayed in speech.

But when my son started banging his head on the floor, when he would be having on of his tantrums, I became afraid and stareted to seek for help.

There comes a time in your life that you have to face your problems head on.

The first thing that I did is to submit my son for diagnosis to a developmental pediatrician. At first, I resisted the idea because i don't believe that there is something wrong with my child, same thing with my husband. But the constant banging of my son's head, his shrill shouts gave us no other solution but to submit him for a behavioral evaluation. When his condition was confirmed after diagnosis I thought that my whole world crumbles. How could I hlp him? I don't even know the word Autism. What shall I do?

This question drives me to the internet and researched about Autism. I read every article, went to almost all of the sights and signed up for free membership to organizations just so I could get a clar picture of what this condition is. Meantim, we enrolled our son for an occupational therapy at a local center.

During his one-month occupational therapy, I monitored his progress. I often talked to his therapist for his progress and ways that I could do at home. I even copied his activities at the center and do it during the evenings at home. I still searched and researched for new ideas and strategies and shared this to his therapist.

My son's progress at first is slow because he would resist teaching and he has a lot of sensory problems. We strated to address these problems one at a time and made good progress. He was later evaluated as a high functioning autism which I thank God profusely for it.