My Intro.

[Lonestarmomof2]

Hello everyone,

I am very happy to have found this site! :)
My name is Debbie, and my husband and I have lived in Texas for the last 21 years. We have two children, one of which is a HFA. He started high school this year and loves it!! We are so very proud of his accomplishments....he is in the marching band, he is currently working on his eagle rank for the Boy Scouts, and has been in the Honor Society Club since the 7th grade.
He has come so far that I almost forgot all of those days of endless doctor visits and early intervention classes. When our son was diagnosed at three years of age there didn't seem to be too many children who were autistic, let alone high-functioning like our son, and because he has always been main-streamed, no one could relate to what we were going through at the time. I wish there had been these types of forums when my son was younger!
I would love to chat with all of you!!
I hope there are some of you who have teens or even older children who have HFA.
I sure would appreciate hearing from you.

Lonestarmomof2

[mlwear]

Welcome! This is a wonderful site. I am eager to read more about you and your son.
My son with HFA is seven and I often wonder what things will be like when he is in high school. (I know parents of neurotypical kids do the same.) I have accepted that my expectations had to be adjusted, but I still expect wonderful things for my child.
I would love to know more about your son's journey. I know your opinions and voice of experience will be greatly valued.

[Lonestarmomof2]

mlwear,

Thank you so much for the welcome!
This appears to be an active site...glad to be a part of it!!

Debbie

[Deester]

Hi Debbie and Welcome.

I have two children, my girl is on the spectrum somewhere in the moderate range.

She certainly has opened our eyes to many things that we never realized about life. We are still struggling as you said you had. Sometimes I too wonder what the future will hold. My daughter loves school and hope it continues. She's already reading. Gobbling up what any words are. She always asking me what things say. She repeats them to herself and she's good.

Denise

[Dave]

Welcome to the site... so I started this site a little late for you huh? Mike is going to be 11 this year and just started Middle School. I will not go into much detail on that since I don't want to steal your thread... tis a doozie.

[Lonestarmomof2]

Dave,
Thank you for the welcome! I appreciate it!!
I look forward to posting.

Debbie

[shatteredmum]

hi, this is my first time on here, so i'm probably doing it all wrong!?!. my name is emma and i live in southern england,with my two children. my son thierry is 2.5 years old as was diagnosed with autism, apparently he's in the middle of the spectrum, somewhere????. so i'm kinda still coming to terms with it all. he can't talk at all just babbles like a baby, and i'm dying for him to say something of sense. did your son start to talk at an early age?. how has he changed since he was my sons age, does it get any easier?. well i hope to hear from you soon. take care of yourself and the kids. xxx:) :)

[Cobweb]

Hi you two
i'm over here in the Uk too. I've been doing it for 22 years and I'm still here.
it has got easier but the problems are different now:huh:

[Lonestarmomof2]

did your son start to talk at an early age?. how has he changed since he was my sons age, does it get any easier?. well i hope to hear from you soon.

Hi Emma,

Our son did not have what they call the "classic" beginnings of autism, when a child is perfectly normal-being able to talk and walk on time and then all of a sudden the child loses all of their capabilities!

With our son, the delays were apparent when he was just a baby! I noticed early on that our son was extremely sensitive to any stimuli, whether it was light or noise. Even as a baby he would not make gestures in order to communicate and on his first birthday he could not put two words together and was not making any attempt to walk either. My mother tried to console me by telling me that I too was delayed in speech and was a late walker as well....my son ended up walking at 16 months...with my mother and father's encouraging words, I put my concerns on the shelf for another year and a half hoping and praying that our son would play catch up, but he didn't! Everything from there on was a delay, from potty training to getting him to eat and sleep like a regular child would...everything was an effort, and his developmental skills were quite scattered. He had a great deal of trouble with processing language as well as retrieving.

Like many parents whose child is diagnosed, we must of seen a dozen doctors...sometimes I read thru his files to remind myself how much he's progressed and are reminded of those many days I thought I just could not take it any more. We didn't have all of these wonderful forums to connect with other parents and there were many days of isolation for me as a parent!
At three yeas of age, we placed him in a wonderful early childhood program and I cannot say enough about early intervention..the changes were subtle, but they there!
With many loving teachers and us working with him everyday after school, we were able to main-stream him. That was one thing I was adament about, that he be main-streamed, and he was, and still is!

Some of "my" hardest years as a parent was when he was young! If I didn't have my family nearby, it would have been a lot tougher journey for both me and my husband. I won't bore you with all of the hard times, but I can tell you that not only is there hope, any child in my opinion can be very successful!

This year our son is a 9th grader and is "still" in the National Junior Honor Society at school and is in the high school marching band. He volunteers in the community and is working on his eagle rank in scouts. I am proud, but in a very humble way because when your a parent of a "special" child you know as a parent that it was not an easy feat!

I hope I didn't bore you, but I enjoy talking about his many accomplishments....there is hope for every child! O :-)
My journey is not over, it's just another stage!

Debbie

[Lonestarmomof2]

Hi you two
it has got easier but the problems are different now:huh:

I agree, it does get easier!
May I ask if you have a daughter or a son and how is she/he doing?

I seldom get to talk to anyone who is even remotely close to my son's age!

Debbie