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Christian's Page

This is Christian's Page. Chris is the oldest of 3 boys, a rambunctious 9 year old. He tells jokes, gives hugs, and says "I love you" - and means it. These are all great accomplishments, because he was diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder when he was only a year old. PDD is another word for Autism.

At 10 months, Chris could say "kitty" and "bye bye", but by 15 months, he wouldn't communicate at all. He had been a very colicky baby, even though he was breastfed he threw up constantly, and screamed most of his waking hours. When he was 18 months he would sit outside and run his fingers through sand and rocks for long periods of time. As a new, young mother, I didn't think this was any cause for concern, he was playing and was quiet, and that's all I wanted.

We started working on him immediately, 6 hours everyday, I would be in his face, making him look at me. Through different stages of his life we would do different therapy approaches. We used to hold him on our lap for a half hour everyday, with him kicking and screaming because he hated the close contact. Even gentle touches hurt him, and the quietest noises were heard by him. Eventually he accepted this "hug" therapy, and we moved on the others, such as brushing and squeezing.

We saw the most results with the behavior modification program. At 4 years old he still wasn't talking, we would reward him with candy just to look at us, then to point to me when we said "Where's Mom?". Every minute of our day was used as a lesson, there was always an opportunity to teach him something. I had to teach him how to clap, hop, dance, nod his head, catch a ball, everything that comes naturally to a normal child. Through all of this, Chris was communicating through a typewriter, even when he was barely 2 years old. He said he learned how to spell from watching Sesame Street. Everynight I would apologize for making him work so hard, he would assure me that he knew it was worth it. He would say "No matter how much I scream or hit or kick-(which he did a lot!)-keep going, I want to be normal..."

At Chris' 12 month checkup, when he was diagnosed, they told me he would be mentally retarded and would never speak or communicate. My husband and I went right out and rented Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, and I cried. Today, Chris really does resemble that character, and we laugh about it.

He can hold a normal conversation, but still has one in his own head, too, and laughs outloud at his own private jokes constantly, but he will share the joke with you if you ask

He is in the 3rd grade, in a regular classroom--Thank you Mrs. Houle :)--He has an aide that he(we all) adore, Gail, and a wonderful special ed teacher Mrs. Brown, whom we all adore, also! :) He got his best start from the wonderful staff at the Franklin County Child Development Services, Lew, Julie, Lynne, Cherie, and Cindy--we love you!. They didn't mind when I would get really involved, and a little too worked up. That's a nice way to put it. He has also had the greatest speech therapists, Linda Mazolla and Cathy Hazelton--what a bunch of patient ladies!

Chris can now read and write, he loves construction equipment, power rangers, dinosaurs, and is beginning to get crushes on girls. He has a lot of friends, and loves to be the class clown, he'll do anything for a laugh.

So, our message here was just to tell people not to give up, to work hard and pray hard, miracles do happen, dreams do come true...

Psalm 27:14 Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous...

Psalm 40:1 I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry.

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Our other pages

Just a Thought
No Greater Love
Pics of the Family
Clean Blood

Email: tcarter@ctel.net