Intro. from NC

October 28, 2011

Hi everyone,

I've been " lurking " , trying to learn as much as possible. My son (only child)

with DS was diagnosed within the spectrum back in August of this year. We

suspected for years (He is 6 now) but all the " professionals " would say no way,

good eye contact, easy to engage, etc. but we saw things that were not present

on the rest of the DS community. He walked very late, among other things. I

think one of the last events we attended with the DS association was at a gym.

My son was maybe about 3 and wasn't even standing on his own. I remember sitting

on the mats behind another mom who had a son about 6 months older than mine when

suddenly her boy came RUNNING to her and gave her a tight hug. I just wanted to

cry right there.

Then at a picnic while kids of all ages (all with DS) were having a wonderful

time at the sprinklers mine wanted nothing to do with it and when they clapped

for some reason, he cried and the list goes on and on. Like some others have

expressed, it became too painful to attend these events.

I don't send him to PS although shortly before the diagnosis I had met the

director of an afterschool program who is also in charge of a program where

college students are paired with a child with autism so he attends the af.

twice/week and he gets to interact with typical kids who by the way are smitten

by him as he is the youngest and a cutie, if mom can say so : ) Also, the

student comes 2x/week for two hours and interacts with him during which time I

can take care of other things as long as I stay in the house so I am getting

much needed free time to do other neglected things.

Also, our church (which we found a few months ago) has a fantastic children's

ministry, so good, we attend twice every weekend, for him and also because the

Pastor delivers the bests life empowering, faith strenghtening sermons I ever

heard and finding this church has become a turning point so I am no longer (or

rarely) in tears on a regular basis. It used to be a weekly event and now, more

than ever I see my son as the special gift from God that he has entrusted me

with although I feel God must really think a lot beeter of me than I do : )

On the bright side besides having access to these programs (not free, but low

cost) now I know how to teach my son, whereas before I was clueless.

I just realized I wrote a very long intro. Thank you if you got this far and

thank you for all the wisdom, knowledge and struggles you share with the

group.By the way, I recognize a few of the members from the Eintein list. Hi!

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