The Adventures of the Reese's Pieces Gang

When Thomas started waking several times a night we also saw many other changes. He started screaming a lot. Anytime someone entered his "space" or touched him. He stopped looking at us, and he stopped talking. He screamed and pointed when he wanted something. The word I missed the most was mama. He stopped asking for me and saying my name. A couple other quirky things that were happening was that he would refuse to wear clothes, he screamed if I put new clothes on him without washing them first, he started to eat very few foods. I took Thomas in for his 2 year appointment at the doctor and expressed concern about his speech. Thomas would hardly sit still for the exam, was all over the office and was fighting me to put his clothes back on. It saddens my heart that the doctor just looked at me and said, "He has so many siblings that they are all just talking for him, he'll be fine." I told her that we didn't talk for him and he didn't talk for himself. I was brushed off and went home thinking well.... I guess he'll be ok. You have to realize that even though all these things were happening, Phil and I really didn't SEE them at the time. I was pregnant again and dealing with 4 children 5 and under. It wasn't until Philip joined us and started to develop normally when we realized how behind Thomas was. I'll tell you more about how the Lord revealed to us that Thomas was autistic tomorrow.

Today's tip: Talk to your children about autism. Most schools and churches today have an autistic child in them. 1 in 150 children is being diagnosed with Autism today. Our public school has less than 130 in the elementary and there are 2 with an Autism Diagnosis. Do some independent research about how autistic children typically behave and teach your children that these kid are fearfully and wonderfully made. Help them to see these children as needing Christ's love and their friendship and patience too! It is tough being a friend to a special needs child but it is needed. Our kids need other kids to not be afraid of them, to realize that they have trouble expressing their wants and desires, to play with them with patience and understanding when the autistic child doesn't make it through the entire game.

My favorite Autism book: Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder by Karyn Seroussi. This is a great starter book for a family who has just been told their child has autism. It gave me great hope that my child could progress and learn, that I needed to do my own research and that my medical doctor might not have all the answers.