Curtis was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome or High Functioning Autism and Expressive Language Disorder in 2009. He was diagnosed with ADD/ADHD in 2010. All the years that we struggled with his in-formal education to his formal education, with all the tears and meltdowns, all of this could have been avoided or eased if only the pediatrics that we trusted in for so many years would have just stepped down from her high-horse over homeschooling and just sent him for testing!
Curtis was born a few years after Roger and I were married. That was the absolute worst pregnancy I had. We found out when I was only 3 months pregnant that I would NOT carry this baby to full term, but the doctors weren't exactly sure HOW FAR they would let me go before induction. The doctors found out very early in the pregnancy that I have some anti-bodies in my blood that are NOT "best friends" with fetuses. I have both Anti-Kell and Anti-Duffy anti-bodies and I got them from a blood transfusion in 1989 after the birth of my daughter. These types of anti-bodies were so new to my doctors and even the specialist that we were sent to, that there was NOT any information out there for us to research and to make things even more interesting, Roger has one of the anti-bodies. We underwent 7 amniocentesis tests throughout the pregnancy along with LOTS of ultrasounds. Finally at about 36 - 37 weeks (about a month pre-mature) the doctors decided that Curtis' lungs were developed enough to deliver. I was induced on a Thursday and gave birth naturally on Saturday, longest labor I have ever had! We stayed in the hospital for a week because Curtis was very jaundiced. Every day the people from the lab would come in and put a tourniquet on his little arm and draw blood.
Well from the time that Curtis was born, I knew SOMETHING was DIFFERENT about him, just didn't know what. Our pediatrician just copped it up to being pre-term and that he would catch up in no time. Well days, weeks and months went by and I still noticed that things were not quite right. Curtis was doing some things that babies his age did but not always at the right time. Again, our peds just said WAIT! By the time Curtis was 1 year old there were things that concerned me and I told our ped and told her that his brother and sister were doing these THINGS by this time and she told me to NOT compare him to others, but that is exactly what she was doing, just on a wider scope.
As the years progressed, it seemed that Curtis was further behind. I have to stop here and say this:
I KNEW from the time that I became pregnant with this child, that I would NEVER send him to school. Not public school and not private!!! He WOULD BE HOMESCHOOLED!!!!
This idea of homeschooling did not sit well with our pediatricians, well mainly just one of them. She hated the idea of a parent teaching their own child. Kinda strange when we are the ones who give birth and raise and teach them the first 4 years of their lives. Seems kinda stupid to send them off to school for a stranger to teach them things that we can surely teach at home, right?
So at 3 years old, we started homeschooling, pre-k if you will. We did mostly playing, but he was learning things, but not really retaining things. So at 4 years old we did more 'real school' stuff and had the same results. We would work on ABC's, 123's and colors but it seemed as if there was no information staying put. As we moved on, over the next year I requested that he be evaluated and I was 'shot' down by our ped, she told me to just send him to school and he would LEARN!!! I told her no, that was NOT what he needed, so we went on for another year. Still struggling with so much and understanding so little. Finally at 7 years old I had had enough. We left the pediatricians practice and found a family practice that 1: was okay with homeschooling and 2: would take the time to figure out what was going on.
At our first appointment the doctor came in, introduced herself and started asking me and Curtis what did we want her to know. As she talked with Curtis, she noticed things that his old doctor NEVER payed attention to and then she turned to me and said, has Curtis ever been tested for Autism? I already knew from research what she was seeing and I told her no, but I would like for that to happen. And it DID!!!
So here we are in the middle of our 2011-2012 school year at 10 years old and dealing with the everyday struggles of AS.
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