Today I watched Holly Robinson Peete share the very personal story about her son who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 3 on her new talk show "The Talk". It was emotional, especially when she talked about the changes in RJ after his 2nd Birthday. As a mother, instinctively she knew that something wasn't right. She was dismissed by others including her pediatrician when she shared her concerns. This struck a cord with me.
During my son Red's 2nd year, I provided daycare for my neighbor's son. The boys were only 4 days apart in age. I thought it would be fun for Red to have a playmate. I watched as my friend's son who came to me with little to no language and communication, start to speak in sentences. While Red's language was present, we didn't understand much of it at all. It was garbled. In my heart I knew something was wrong. I too was dismissed by our Pediatrician. "Oh he's just a boy. Everyone develops at a different pace. Yada, Yada, Yada."
It wasn't until his 3rd birthday that the doctor tired of hearing me, finally suggested that we at least have his hearing checked. His hearing was fine. But it was the Audiologist that suggested that we have his speech evaluated by the local school district. He was evaluated and shortly thereafter, he started in the Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities.
A year lost. A year of preventions and therapy that could have been in place -when I knew that he needed help.
As a mother -always follow your instinct. You're usually right.
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During my son Red's 2nd year, I provided daycare for my neighbor's son. The boys were only 4 days apart in age. I thought it would be fun for Red to have a playmate. I watched as my friend's son who came to me with little to no language and communication, start to speak in sentences. While Red's language was present, we didn't understand much of it at all. It was garbled. In my heart I knew something was wrong. I too was dismissed by our Pediatrician. "Oh he's just a boy. Everyone develops at a different pace. Yada, Yada, Yada."
It wasn't until his 3rd birthday that the doctor tired of hearing me, finally suggested that we at least have his hearing checked. His hearing was fine. But it was the Audiologist that suggested that we have his speech evaluated by the local school district. He was evaluated and shortly thereafter, he started in the Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities.
A year lost. A year of preventions and therapy that could have been in place -when I knew that he needed help.
As a mother -always follow your instinct. You're usually right.
Our Family was nominated as one of the 25 Most Inspiring Families on Circle of Mom's. Check it out and feel free to vote:

If you really got nothing better to do...you can click here too:

Adelaide Dupont · 285 weeks ago
And for those of us who knew and appreciated these points in high school to a greater or lesser extent - always good to have a refresher and feel them through the current and future generations who we survived to be able to see.
I especially appreciated points 5, 7 and 10.
And young women not settling or settling down yet is a good thing.
"It's never too late to live our dreams" - but it may be too early for some of them!
And 8 of course.
nicole · 244 weeks ago
Risa · 231 weeks ago
LAH · 222 weeks ago
Maira L. Coral · 217 weeks ago
I was looking for information for my Multi-Genre Disability Research Project from my Early Childhood Special Education class on the web, when suddenly I came across your blog. I started reading this out of curiosity and I want to tell you that as you said yourself, you will not be Amanda Gorman, but you managed to make me shed some tears, perhaps because I felt totally identified with your words, especially in the part that you speak of your son. My son also has Asperger's syndrome, he is 19 years old and he is in the second semester of College. Also like yours, he takes classes from home, likewise my eldest daughter is also taking college classes from her room. At the same time, that I work as a preschool teacher from my kitchen through a computer, my husband sleeps in the room during the day because he works at night. Also in the afternoons I myself take virtual school classes. I am a 51-year-old Latin woman who began to learn the English language as adult, so maybe you find some deficiencies in my writing, however, I was very moved by how proud you express yourself about your son. Referent your mother, I liked the humorous tone that you give when your talk about her, so I did not want to miss this opportunity and stopped my assignments for a moment to let you know that your words do make a difference, since they reach the heart of at least those who have opportunity to read you. I want confess you that is the most long I have written to someone I don't know, because your words inspired me, thank you...
Gavin Bollard · 209 weeks ago
Thanks for this post. I've been very distracted of late and so this was how I found out about our friend Kate. Kate's struggles were very real but they were so constant and so wide-ranging that it was difficult for people around her to address them. I think it's going to take a while longer for me to process all this.
I learned so much from Kate because she was always quick to point out the many injustices in the world. In her glory days, she was very much a crusader and she cared for everyone. Over the years, as her situation took its toll, I came to realise that it was the fact that she couldn't be put in a single specific category, that made the system fail her. She needed help that they weren't set up to provide.
She needed more care and she needed to be less alone. I'm so sorry that this has happened.
For a long while we were corresponding almost every day but a couple of months ago, I realised that she had become so stressed that nearly every interaction I had with her was starting to trigger her. I backed away to give her a bit more space. She only had a little time that she could stand to be online and there were too many things that she wanted to do in that time. I thought that by taking a step back, she could reach out to more people who might be geographically closer and able to assist.
Kate was a beautiful soul and she will be sorely missed by all of us.
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Spoil your cat · 122 weeks ago
Many of these living arrangement aren't good, and many of the people who run those places really don't have the residents' best interest at heart. Those places are like old age homes and foster homes, where you sometimes hear horror stories. They're hard to trust. But then there are good ones, of course.
The best thing for an autistic adult is either to go on living at home or working and renting an apartment and living independently, but that isn't always an option.
Duncan · 112 weeks ago