Celebrating Carson

Carson is an absolutely amazing 11 year old boy. Carson was diagnosed with autism shortly after his third birthday. To be honest, I think I knew that he had autism shortly after his first birthday. Carson had an enormous amount of sensory issues plus extensive behaviors. He was known for having meltdowns that would last for 2 plus hours. Before Carson’s diagnosis he was already in developmental preschool, private speech, and private OT. As soon as he was diagnosed he started ABA therapy. When Carson was diagnosed the doctors were unsure of what his future would look like. Many thought that he may not be able to be mainstreamed in school due to the complexities of his diagnoses. He has autism, ADHD, plus learning disabilities. With all of this being said, I knew that I had to do everything in my power to fight for my son. I wanted him to have every experience that he deserved and that started with mainstream education beginning in preschool. I advocated for a private preschool to take Carson because I knew the value of having Carson exposed to typically developing peers. We pushed for ABA to go with him. Early Intervention was key to Carson’s success! His services topped 40+ hours per week! I know that this seems like a lot, but I did not want to look back and say I didn’t try an intervention that may be useful. In addition to all of these services, Carson was also apart of a ground breaking clinical trial at Duke University! He had stem cells infused in 2018. We have also done Cog Med to work on working memory.

Today, Carson is in a regular 4th grade class in a rigorous private school. He has been excited from almost all services and now he only gets pulled out for math intervention. He still receives ABA, but the 40 hours per week has been dropped to 10. Carson is truly a miracle to me. He is able to do things that they never thought that he’d be able to accomplish. He sleeps in his own bed, rides a bike, and he’s now learning how to skateboard. I spent years blogging about the challenges that we faced in the early years, but I stopped when things got easier. I began to ponder this the other day and realized that my audiences need to continue to hear about Carson and his successes. Please join me on this journey of Celebrating Carson!