The Importance of Early Childhood Education In Autism Detection

I knew something wasn't quite right fairly early on with my oldest son. He would sit and just bang his head on the wall when he was an infant. When I asked his doctor about it, the doctor told me it was normal, just something that babies did. I had my son when I was nineteen. I hadn't even ever changed a diaper before I had a baby. But I knew what the doctor was saying was a load of rubbish.

The good about having a baby at nineteen, you usually don't have that much money. I was able to get my son into a good Head Start program. He wouldn't interact with the other children. The staff had someone from the special ed Head Start class come have a look at him. They saw the problem right off, and were able to refer me to specialist and doctors who wouldn't treat me like an idiot. That early intervention made a world of difference. I was told that my son may never speak. He didn't really until he was six or so, but we didn't give up. He had great teachers who were willing to work with him, and would take the extra time to tell me what to do to help him. He started school in classes for the severely handicapped. Now he's a freshman in high school, mainstreamed in all of his classes with just an one on one aide in some of the classes. The aide is there to help him if he needs it, but has instructions to help other kids if my son doesn't need it. But if it hadn't been for Head Start my son probably still would be that kid with "nothing wrong", banging his head on the wall.