I think it is important for families to share their personal stories of triumphs and challenges that they face with autism. Here is the beginning of Dalton's journey.
It is important for each family and individual that faces the struggles of autism to share their stories. I know that through reading and listening to others I haven't only learned a lot, but the open dialogue has helped our family make decisions on the direction we would take.
In the next series of articles I will discuss the story of our son Dalton. The early signs, his diagnosis, learning about autism and how are family has coped through the good and the bad.
Dalton's birth was a little frightening. I ended up needing an emergency C-section because his heart rate dropped. He was born depressed (not breathing and no heart rate). Dalton had to spend the first 24 hours in the NICU. He recovered quickly and when we brought him home he was sweet, loving and what I would describe as an easy baby.
I always felt so lucky with my son, because he was so easy going. He was not very demanding. He was very loving and in fact has always enjoyed snuggling. However, he was uneasy around strangers. I, of course being an over-protective mother, was a little glad that he was not thrilled when strangers walked up to him. But, there were certain situations that seemed not quite right. When we went to the grocery story all the cashiers and store greeters would talk to him or offer him a sticker and he would advert his gaze and completely ignore them. He would never even smile at them. I remember thinking that was odd, but thinking that it was just some sort of "quirk".
Dalton hit all of his gross motor milestones. In fact, he pulled himself up at 9 months and within two weeks was taking his first steps. He went from crawling to walking very quickly. His fine motor skills were not quite as strong, but it didn't seem to be anything to be concerned about. For example, he would use his thumb to push buttons instead of his index finger. Later on I learned that this was a sign of poor fine muscle tone.
Dalton rarely babbled and never really tried to talk. He loved to read books with us, but when we tried to get him to repeat words or try to get him to watch us talk, he would get irritated and advert his gaze. He never imitated, waved bye-bye or pointed. Anytime we would try to get him to wave bye-bye, he would look at us like we were the weirdest people he ever saw. He loved books, but never pointed at objects in them.
Dalton never pointed at things he was interested in. We would go with a play group to the zoo every week and the other children would point at things all the time to show their mother or try to ask some sort of question. Dalton never did this. He would take in his surroundings and quietly observe. At around 2 years of age he started to take our hand and move it on to things he either wanted or wanted us to help him with. I found out later that this is called autistic leading.
In the next article I will continue with discussing Dalton's early signs.
Related articles:
- Autism Defined
- Autism Symptoms
- Autism Testing
- Autism: First Steps
- Overcoming Autism
