A Parents’ Guide to Early Autism Intervention

This book is intended to help other parents who are currently in the situation we were in. Our baby, only one year old, was discovered to have developmental delays. We knew nothing about autism at this time but was urged by knowledgeable friends to get him evaluated. We followed through and did not wait. As a result of his evaluation he was placed into an early intervention program with the Lanterman Regional Center in Los Angeles, California. He is eight now and still a client at Lanterman. This book is about his first five years in the autism system. It explains our experiences with those first few at-home therapies, his first speech therapy, his OT evaluation, his first IEP, and kindergarten. During these transitional years (our transition from typical parents to autism parents and his transition from typical kid to autism kid) we had a huge learning curve, the learning curve for autism is mind boggling! We threw ourselves into helping our son and learning all we could and keeping on top of his services and his intervention. This book documents the good and the bad during this time. I intend this book as a learning experience, and hopefully your road within the autism system will be smoother.