Hi there and welcome to our site. Benjamin is a sweet, fun, and lively little boy who was diagnosed with autism just 2 days before his second birthday (July 2008) . As parents we ask ourselves what we did, how it happened, and why? I know that I have read more books, articles, and spoken to more people in the past few months than I probably have in my entire lifetime. To answer those questions I have turned to family, friends and even some strangers, but no one really has an answer. There are many people who believe vaccines help to cause autism, which is a belief I now share. I also believe that a few contributing factors may of made Ben more susceptible to autism. 

Benjamin at just 3 weeks old contracted RSV, a respiratory virus that can cause infantile death. We were proactive and he was on medications as well as breathing treatments every four hours for 2 weeks and then he was on the treatments for another month. Ben has been sick more than he has been well. He was prescribed antibiotic after antibiotic and was injected with the Hepatitis B vaccine when he was recovering from Roseola. That is when we started to notice a change in Ben. It was a gradual change but by 14 months Ben was gone. He wasn’t saying “see you soon” or “cheese” for the camera, a matter of fact, he wasn’t even looking at the camera. He wasn’t looking at anyone. You could call his name and it was like he was deaf. Ben also ran in circles, flapped his arms and screamed for what seemed like no reason.

I decided to go to the pediatrician at 16 months where they assured me that boys learn at a slower rate than girls and for me not to compare him to his older sister. He is just fine they said. At 20 months I went in for another “well check” even though I knew that things were not well. I was told that Ben would be referred to Early Intervention but the doctor still assured me that nothing was wrong. Being a former teacher I knew that Ben was showing signs of Autism. After 6 weeks we finally got into Early Intervention and after 3 hours I was told that he was behind in speech, cognition and he could possibly have autism.

My husband and I took Ben to specialist after specialist and their prognosis was the same, Autism. The final doctor asked me what I was doing, if I already had a diagnosis, why were we there? I guess I just didn’t want to believe that my son had autism. After going into what I call the mourning period, I realized that Ben needed help. We started speech at 600.00 per month for two half hour sessions a week, and we eventually got into occupational therapy. I decided that this was not enough, but insurance didn’t even cover these therapies. We applied for funding and help through many different state organizations but the waiting lists are long and we make too much money, which is strange to me because I am not sure who has an extra 600.00 lying around to pay for 4 hours of speech a month. Dustin and I realized that it was going to take a lot more than hoping that Ben would get better. I researched and researched and decided that an intensive behavioral program was what Ben would benefit from. He needed ABA. I talked with Dustin about how we were going to afford it and what we would have to cut back on. After crunching all of the numbers we had enough, in our savings to pay for 5-7 months of ABA. So we decided to start the Lovaas Program which has a recovery rate of 48% which is the best outcome possible for Ben.

The website is a way for us to keep everyone updated on Ben’s progress, to learn about autism, and how a person can help. There are so many ways a person can help make a difference. Please visit that link on our page. You could be the last piece in Benjamin’s puzzle.