Today really SUCKS!

Hi Everyone... Well let me start out by saying I haven't had a good day. Tuesday I found out that my daughter (the oldest twin) has moderate to severe autism. Well TODAY I found out her sister does too, a milder form, but in fact has it. My 3 year old son was diagnosed with severe autism when he was 18 months. Thank GOD we have had all 3 of our kids in therapy at such a young age. I'm hoping all the early intervention will help them out later in life, but right now I'm feeling extremely overwhelmed!!!! If anyone has more than one child, sibling, etc with Autism I'd love to hear your perspective on how you may have handled it. At this point I don't know what else to do except for therapy. Thanks for listening!!! Jenn

Just remember, you will have good days that out weights the bad. Therapy is all you can do at this time . I have my son in Boy Scouts ,and it forces him to be more outgoing, but I was always at the meetings with him. Kim

Jenn, first let me say I'm sorry that you are going thru this. I only have one little girl and she has asperger. She wasn't dx'd until she was 7 or 8. Before that all they would tell us was that she was adhd. So we lost all the early intervention. Thank God you have that on your side. Some days with her are wonderful, almost normal then others are a totaly nightmare. All I can say is stay strong and when you can't ask for help. I keep reminding my self that if it is this hard on me I can only imajine how it must be for them. Pam

Both of my sons have Aspergers. One is pretty high functioning, the other...well, maybe moderate at best. Looking back, I don't know how I got through it. They started off really as more classically autistic being called plain PDD (not even with an nos added), yet no one back then ever would say the dreaded "A" word. Son #1 was in services by the age of 10 months, son #2 by the age of 5 months, so in one sense the services we got them I feel "graduated" them from autism to Asperger dxes later on. This was way back when (sons were born in 90 and 92. We didn't even know about stuff like ABA. We did OT, PT, social skills groups, sensory integration stuff, even chiropractic care, developmental preschool, plus both had very lare summer birthdays so they were 6 or close to 6 when they started K. They got on IEPs right away and continued services in school. In Jan 1999 at the U in Seattle, we were one of the first families in a study with 2 or more kids with any form of autism. It was in this study that they said to me, oh by the way after all this testing (they tested both my husband and me as well), did you know *you* have Asperger Syndrome too? I am half considering doing one of the studies they have going right now for adults with AS that involves doing an MRI of the brain and facial recognition (an aside). Btw, when my sons were little, we lived in Kent and their therapy was at the Children's Therapy Center there.

hy Jenn im fathy. specialest of autism. from Egypt if u want help from me send me on my emil [email protected] sory im in first level in E course in AUC BUT I HAVE GOOD EX IN AUTISM ABOUT ACADMEC & BEHV SOC. YOUR FRIND