Our Kids Our Stories Diego
Tuesday, 05 January 2010 00:00
Diego (born March 2006) was meeting all of his milestones on time in his first year of life. In the second year, we started to notice “different” behaviours between him and other children his age. He was non-verbal, made no eye contact, would not respond to his name, wouldn’t play with other kids, and couldn’t follow any instructions.
Diego was diagnosed with autism in December 2008, at age 2 and nine months. We started enrolling him in any given program that would help out our little boy. Unfortunately, all of them have a waiting list. Diego has been on the waiting list to receive government-funded ABA therapy since April of 2009, and we still have about 18 months to go.
In the meantime, like many parents who are desperate to help their child with ASD, we have decided to find private ABA therapy. To help him socialize with other children, we have also enrolled him a regular daycare program, which we also pay for ourselves. Just for these two things alone, we spend $2,000 per month.
Even though I’m a stay-at-home mom with a baby girl, and my husband is the sole-provider for our family, we understand that time is crucial, and early intervention is the key to my son’s success. We can only pray that our son will have a fair opportunity in life, and stand up for himself.