my son Anthony was diagnosed at the age of 2 ! I had early intervention he was missing all his milestone wouldn't talk didn't want to be held he wanted to play by himself, lined all his stuff up ,preferred just a few things.i took him to his pedi and luckily his pedi wife was a developmental specialist she did some testing and then the day i was dreading but looking forward to at the same time came ,she said ms iraci i am sorry to have to tell you your son has autism i broke down and cried and still cry to this day sometimes. but right then i knew i was going to fight as hard as i could for him! they told he may never speak well i can tell you he proved them all wrong! he started intensive therapy immediately we had building blocks, ABA, early intervention,OT, pt,he had everyone and slowly my son came out of his shell it was amazing he went into special ed preschool then to a normal kindergarten with a para professional at the age of 5 he learned to speak. he is now in 4 Th grade no para just an iep ! he gets all the help in the world! still get speech ,ot,social group things like that, yes i had to fight the school system but i didn't care he is the most loving caring amazing boy who has grades of a 6 th grader i am so proud how far he has come unless you spend a lot of time with you wouldn't even know he has autism! he has done football and is now is special Olympics bowling ! he is the most amazing boy and fighter in the world he is a true success story!

candace iraci-finn
woburn, MA