Blogger note: This is a series of posts centered on my sons', Jay and Craig, special needs. I’ll be blogging about our journey from discovery to diagnosis and beyond.

Jay was gone. I looked for him through the throng of festival attendees as they entered and exited the fairground gateway. I had already left the inside crush of vendors selling corndogs, plastic Dora dolls, flashlight swords, lemonades, nachos and handmade wind chimes. I stood on the outside... more

My son Craig has been receiving early intervention services from the local regional center. His language delay and some quirky behaviors prompted his case worker to have him assessed for autism.

Craig’s dad and I never thought he had autism, maybe some OCD-like traits, but not autism. Craig's so incredibly social and engaging it surprised us that he could possibly be considered autistic. Our oldest son has high-functioning autism (Aspergers) so we’ve experienced the classical signs (though didn’t know it at the time) of an autism spectrum disorder from his early years to current day.

Our experience with Craig was so completely different. He laughed, made eye contact, wanted... more