And so the adventure begins...

As I announced in a column last week, I'm fed up with all of the indecisive doctors, misdiagnosis', differing opinions and Harvard Panels that can't seem to conclude anything at all about the Austistic Spectrum. I've thrown my hat and my 6 plus years of experience raising a child who has been diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum into the ring.

One problem... I don't have any answers either. I also don't have a lot of money to donate to further much needed research. Some activist I am. The only thing I can offer is my experience and a tenacity to urge parents to look for signs of the Spectrum early. If diagnosis and treatments are done early enough, children have the best chance at full development. In my trials in getting my son to the full development stage I have been led down many paths (some yielded help, some not).

I'm amazed when I look back to think how my husband and I got our son as far as we have. I'm not amazed because we necessarily did an expert job. I'm more impressed that we were able to make a difference trusting our own instincts and identifying our (many) mistakes early. In fact, about the only thing we did correctly was to realize very early that something was missing with Jayson. The connection early wasn't there. It manifested itself in different ways I'll talk about in the next column.

Other columns:

Do Special Diets Help Autistic Children
My Call to Activism