Our Autism Story Part IV

I am sorry that it taken me all month to post what I thought would take a few short days. These posts taken a lot out of me emotionally, "going down memory lane." So thank you for being patient and praise God for a happy ending!

Our Autism Story Part I

Our Autism Story Part II

Our Autism Story Part III


First Steps ends services once a child turns three. At that time, if they qualify they go into Developmental Preschool through the public school system. Josiah was making wonderful progress, but we felt it was in his best interest to continue with the developmental preschool. He had to be assessed and that was done in June. Can you believe that he did not qualify for speech therapy? He was at age level, glory be to God! In the short time that he had been talking, he learned all his letters and their sounds, his colors, shapes and recognized his numbers up to 12. He did qualify for a “label” of developmental delay and started school in August.

He did very well at school and loved riding the bus. As a homeschool mom it is hard to let your child, especially a three year old, get on a school bus and leave you for four hours each day. It got easier with time, but I still missed having him at home and working with him like I used to. I knew he was in good care and he was still making great progress. Those two things put my mind at ease.

We had a teachers conference in October. I was not prepared for what she brought to the table. She told me that Josiah has met all of their/our goals for him and she does not see him needing any other services. She said that she had been around a lot of autistic children and she just didn’t see it in Josiah. She wanted him to be in the least restrictive environment (don’t we all?) and she felt that at the preschool he was being restricted, because he was the most advanced child in the class. He did need to be reevaluated before he could be dismissed. This process took a couple of months. When they gave me his results at a meeting, I was blown away. He was beyond his age for speech and was at age level in all the other aspects. So at this time he was dismissed from school. It was sad to say goodbye, because these teachers, therapist, bus drives had done so much for my son, but I was more than happy to bring him back home with us.

He has been home now for 4 months and is still doing well. There are only a couple of areas that I notice a difference in Josiah. One is when we are with other kids and he chooses to play alone. He does play with his brothers, but when it comes to socializing with other kids he has a harder time. The other is the fact he gets fixated on one subject and that is all that he talks about. Right now it is going to Florida and riding on the Spiderman ride. I think we talk about it five times each day! Both of these aspects make Josiah a unique individual and I am not concerned at all, because I know it could be so much worse.

I look back on his life and am amazed at how far he has come. I truly believe it is only because of the grace of God he no longer has autism. I can’t imagine what our life would be like now if it weren’t for all the prayer and early intervention that he received. He is still on the special diet, but doesn’t react nearly as poorly if he gets wheat or dairy in his system. He has started to read and is doing it on his own. I think it helps that his brothers are learning to read! He also knows all of the continents. He talks nonstop and loves to argue about everything. He is a very smart little boy and loves to learn about new things. I plan on keeping him home and homeschooling him from here on out.

If you have any questions about autism, Sensory Integration Dysfunction, gluten/casein free diet, DAN or anything from our story, please contact me!