How it all began

Some people say that their child was developing at a normal rate and than once they received their 18 month immunizations, they stopped talking. It wasn't like that with Owen.

Owen is our first child so it was a learning process for us as to what we should expect from him. He definitely hit most of his developmental milestones later than the average child, but our pediatrician never seemed overly concerned with that. I would have to say that it was members in my family that pointed out some of his unusual behaviors first. Finally after doing some research on my own , I took Owen to his 3 year well-visit with our pediatrician and explained my concerns to her. Things like, preoccupation with spinning wheels or other objects, doesn't point at things, sensitivity to heat and sound, easily overwhelmed in new situations or large groups, repetitive speech and looking at objects out of the corner of his eyes. She gave me a form with 10 questions on it and asked me to complete it. After I did, she looked at and said "he's not autistic". It really bothered me that she felt she could give a proper diagnosis based on 10 questions. So from there our journey began......