When the Mind HEARS and Autism SPEAKS!… a Journey of LOVE!!!
Today is Dominic’s Birthday - my little gorgeous 5 years old nephew -… we’re celebrating his Birthday on Sunday, with the entire family and his circle of friends. I could not let this day go by without to reflect on his amazing story of
challenges and success.
I wrote about his story a while back in a post “Big successes start with little ones” http://activerain.com/blogsview/553092/Big-successes-start-with-little-ones
He was born with a rare medical condition “Auditory Neuropathy/Auditory Dys-Synchrony (AN/AD)” in short -hearing impaired - deaf… It was devastating news for my sister and our entire family. After the initial denial, dismay and anger we came to the terms with the reality… It was particularly painful for my sister and my mom.
After reality sink-ed in a lot of team work efforts took place; Doctors, Hearing specialists, Tests and Counseling, Verbal therapy,
Physical therapy, Behavioral therapy… ended up with his cochlear implant surgery at the age of two.
Hopefully Dominic is, by his nature, a very happy, easy going child and he adjusted well to all the demands of a life full of training programs, therapy and special schools…
He speaks very well, reads, spells and does easy math. As the time progressed and we were all a little at ease and hopeful with his progression, some developments in his
behaviors raised concerns. An other underlined condition came into the equation: AUTISM.
It is in the high functional spectrum and hard to detect, if you don’t know him… but
never the less is an other blow to all that loves and work with him.
I’ve never seen in my life such a hard working child… with such disciplined, well structured, busy with his therapy and classes: 8hrs./day - 4hrs. special school and 4hrs. private therapy - School and therapy are his entire life. But he is doing so well… he has extraordinary ability in many area, such as in mathematics, memory, music and art.
Doing his homework… Isn’t he precious?
How far we came along!… From the deepest pain, frustration and uncertainty of the past to the light, optimism and bright expectation for the future. In many ways he was, and continues to be, our greatest spiritual teacher.
Lesson: Loving unconditionally, without boundaries and to the full extend of heart’s potential. He is my Hero!…
Happy Birthday Baby!
Foot Note: Autism is touching many lives and became an epidemic in US. California rank is 1 of 154 child is born with a form of Autism. I don’t see Nevada rank here but
doesn’t mean that we are uncounted for the epidemic. Highest is Minnesota rank 1 of 81
Child Count data are collected annually by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in accordance with Section 618 of Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA defines 13 eligibility categories including autism that data is recorded for. OSEP releases data from 1998 to the most recent data (2006) Data Reference: https://www.ideadata.org/PartBChildCount.asp
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