Yes, I really did name my post the title of a song by Deniece Williams and made even more famous as a song on the soundtrack for the 80′s movie, Footloose. I tend to think in terms of songs or movies (yes its weird but so what) And it also appropriately describes my son, TJ so I just went with it. The month of April has been set aside to bring attention and awareness to Autism, a condition which my youngest son has.

As some of you may know I’m the mother of 6 children, 2 of those 6 have conditions that are labeled “special needs” I have often talked about my youngest daughter, Tatiana who was born with Down syndrome but I don’t often share a lot about my son’s condition.  I struggled and sometimes still do with my son’s diagnosis.  It was a lot harder for me to deal with and accept opposed to finding out my daughter’s diagnosis.  I think because I had known from the moment Tatiana was born that she has Ds it made it easier…there was never a time when it wasn’t a reality of her life.  With TJ he was born a perfectly healthy child with no appearance of genetic abnormality. He hit all his milestones from perfect 10 apgar scores at birth to walking before he was 2 years old.

But somewhere around his 3rd birthday or a little before, I started noticing that something was different about his development.  He wasn’t talking much for a child his age, he was overly sensitive to noises, sounds and light and he was socially delayed. He was also hyperactive and could not keep still for long periods of time.  At first I just chalked it up to him being unique however I soon had to face the possibility that there might be something very wrong with my beautiful, sensitive boy.

I was pregnant with my daughter when I started taking him to a new pediatrician that I had heard great things about. On TJ’s first visit, Dr. Grundy immediately knew that something was amiss, she suggested that I have him evaluated for Autism. Although I had heard of Autism, I knew virtually nothing about it. I took him to the specialist that she referred me to and had him tested. Subsequently I had given birth to my daughter and while I was given confirmation that she indeed has Ds, I was notified that my son was being classified as having PDD-NOS, pervasive development disorder, a condition on the Autism Spectrum.

I kinda felt like I had been knocked down….HARD! I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do but what I did know was I had to help him get any and all assistance that he needed to thrive despite this condition. So I contacted my Early Intervention Department and started the journey to living with Autism.  TJ is doing wonderfully! He attends school in a typical classroom setting but has assistance when needed and receives speech and language therapy outside of the classroom 3 times a week. He is bright, reads above his grade level, is gifted in several areas of sports, a Cub Scout and to my delight is a snarky little kid (I am snarky on the DL, so he is his mother’s child). He is consistently on the Honor Roll and is enjoying interacting with his peers.

I couldn’t ask for a sweeter child and I am grateful to God for his life! In honor of World Autism Awareness Day (which was April 2nd) to honor and celebrate those who are living with Autism people wore blue to show support of their lives. I wore a blue and black peplum blouse with jeans (it seems that I don’t have much blue in my closet) accompanied by a blue handbag with blue polished toenails.

Now back to the song, the chorus of the song says Let’s hear it for the boy, let’s give the boy a hand, let’s hear it for my baby, you know you gotta understand. Oh oh oh maybe he’s no romeo but he’s my loving one man show, oh, oh, oh let’s hear it for the boy….my TJ exactly!  I’m trying to embed the video for the song into this post but I always seem to have issues with this so if it doesn’t show up just go to YouTube to check it out. It’s such an upbeat cheery song!