Gratitude

My heart is full of gratitude for the progress Mason continues to make! I know we are truly blessed in so many ways! Mason continues to move forward with a smile on his face! We just added a social group to his busy schedule! He is amazingly surviving 9 hours of therapy on Monday! He is a trooper! Mason attended his first social group at 18 months of age. We had to fight him to interact with other children and to be a part of the activities! He just wanted to run around, flapping his hands and doing his own thing! He was nonverbal at the time! He had completely lost all his language! I remember leaving in tears, wondering what the future held for our son! Looking back now, I cry tears of happiness at the little boy he has become! Now, Mason walks into group with pure excitement, so eager to be with his friends! He sits in circle time, listening and responding! He even pretended to be robots with a little buddy of his, talking and walking like a robot! That is HUGE! Mason is an incredible, hardworking little boy! I am so relieved to finally be able to say, Mason has a beautiful future ahead of him! Mason WILL be okay! There are so many things that have contributed to that! One, the power of prayer! Two, the amazing therapists that work so hard and love Mason so much! And three, all of you that have supported us through our journey! Thank you for helping us give Mason such an incredible opportunity!

My Bowling Boy!

Mason has a new favorite thing to do, bowling! "Balling" in his words! He works so hard during the week for the reward to go bowling! He is so stinkin cute in those little shoes! The first throw, he jumped up and down with his arms in the air, so excited! Then he decided that was too tiring so he bent down and watched the ball hit the pins! He amazingly enough got a strike and two spares and tells everyone that asks! Have fun Mason, you deserve it!

One honest child

Mason is learning to spontaneously say things now! The other day he wanted to play with the basket of balls. This one laundry basket holds every ball we own and is full to the top. I got them out and continued what I was doing. I started to hear the balls bouncing off the walls and turned around to see what he was doing. He had emptied the basket and was throwing balls up the stairs and watching them bounce back down. I said, "Mason what are you doing?" and he answered back, "Mom, I'm just making a mess mom!" Atleast he is honest!!

You stinker!!

The other day I went in the bathroom with Mason to help him, he finished his business and said, "Mom, what color is my pee" and I jokingly answered "purple" and he laughed and said, "No you stinker, its yellow"!! Wonder where he learned the word "stinker"!!

Wishes do come true!

This past week I have been thinking about all the progress Mason has made since we moved here. I remember back in Vegas, right before we left I made a few wishes for Mason. I wished that he could answer me, even with a simple yes or no. I wished he would look at me and be able to converse with me. I wished he would be able to tell me exactly what he wants and needs. I wished he would be happy and learn to enjoy life!
In the short 9 months we have been here, those wishes have come true. Mason can answer yes and no questions, he can and does converse with me while looking at me. He can tell me exactly what he wants and needs and most importantly, Mason is happy. Mason can talk to me... finally! Only 50% of children with regressive autism learn to talk again. What a blessing Mason can communicate! This past week Mason has started saying please, thank you and your welcome. I handed him something he had asked for, and in a sweet little voice he said, "thanks mom"! I about fell over and just smiled and said "your welcome Mason". That wasn't the last I heard those words, now every time he uses his manners and appropriately! I am so pleased with him and the little boy he is becoming!!

Happy Halloween Mason!!

Halloween has always been a challenge when it comes to costumes and Mason!! We bought a costume last minute, Woody from Toy Story! He loves the movie!! We begged and tried to get him to put it on. Didn't work! He saw all his cousins getting dressed up and seemed a little interested but still wasn't willing to try it on!! After we explained the trick-or-treating and that he would get candy in a bag, he seemed excited! We quickly got him dressed and took him out to the first door! He was so excited to see that someone put candy in his bag! By the fifth door he was right up there saying "Trick-or-Treat" and saying "thank you" after getting the candy! We decided Halloween night was the first time we saw Mason look most like a typical child!! What a fun and memorable holiday!

Music Therapy

Mason looks so cute in his great big headphones! He is doing therapeutic listening, which is an innovative program for providing high quality input within the context of sensory integrative treatment. Music is adjusted to make higher or lower tones and pitches to provide this type of treatment. Like most children with autism, Mason hears different than we do. Certain tones and pitches are louder to him which causes him to react. By doing this type of therapy, Mason is allowing himself to slowly get used to those tones and pitches in order to adjust to the everyday sounds he hears. For example, Mason doesn't like when Riley cries, especially in the car. A few months ago, if Riley started to cry, Mason would cover his ears and scream at a higher pitch to cover Riley's cry. With just a few months of therapeutic listening, Mason was able to remain calm during a car ride of crying. Now he is able to talk to me and remain calm in situations that were difficult for him in the past!

Therapy with Shaving Cream

Sensory issues are very common in children with autism. There are a total of 7 foods Mason eats. The whole thing is so complex and has to be addressed in small steps. The first thing for Mason is touching things with his hands. Mason doesn't like the feel of anything dirty on his hands. We started with a bucket of dry pinto beans and moved up from there; rice, oatmeal, spaghetti, etc. Shaving cream was not doable for him and took us months of trying. After different types of therapies addressing the sensory issues, Mason decided shaving cream could be fun! Tyson and I started playing in it first and Mason realized the fun of painting with shaving cream! By the end, we were all covered in it, from head to toe and loving every second of it! Way to go Mason!!!

A walking miracle!

Mason started preschool a few weeks ago and he absolutley loves it!! When we arrived at his school, he jumped out of the car and was thrilled to be able to wear his Thomas backpack! He had worn it 2 full days before we even went. We walked into his classroom and I said "Mason where are we" and he answered, "Look mom, its a classroom" with pure excitement! He went from one thing to the next telling us all about it! I stayed the first day to observe and was shocked with what I saw. The classroom was so quiet except for the sound of Mason's sweet little voice. I came home in tears of joy as I told everyone that Mason's biggest issue was that he talks too much! I never thought I would be able to say that. Exactly 2 years ago we started this journey with Mason and back then we weren't sure if Mason would ever be able to communicate! Mason has worked so hard in the past 8 months and what a miracle it has been to see him blossom! The therapy here has brought Mason out of the ties of autism that held him back before. He is an incredible little boy with such a sweet, animated little personality!! He is a walking miracle!!

Thanks!!

On a side note we would like to thank everyone for the outpour of generosity on Mason's behalf. We are so grateful for the support and love shared by so many. The correspondence has brought up a lot of questions that we will do our best to answer.

Q: Why couldn't we stay in Las Vegas and allow Mason to receive services there?
A: In Nevada, when a child with special needs turns 3, they enter the school district. Certain schools offer the autism preschool which is a full day program with teachers who are not necessarily qualified. To make matters worse, recently two teachers were arrested for mistreating children with autism, one teacher being at the school Mason would have attended. Besides the school district, even with unlimited financial resources the private therapy is nowhere to be found in Las Vegas.

Q: Why can't we get our insurance to cover the therapy?
A: No insurance company will cover a mental illness, especially autism.

Q: What does the school district offer in Oregon?
A: The school district in Oregon is ranked high in education, especially the special needs program. Mason will attend a preschool offered by the school district beginning this fall. The teacher in the classroom is very qualified and has years of experience with children with special needs. The preschool is two days a week for two hours a day, with both sensory and speech therapy within the two hours. Once the school district feels Mason is ready to attend a community preschool, they will attend with him until he is able to be independent. This is a free service.

Q: Why do we have Mason in other programs besides what the school district offers?
A: Although the preschool offered by the school district is wonderful, he needs one on one therapy. The preschool will be great for Mason to learn how to interact with other children and prepare for a typical elementary school. But the private services Mason is receiving are tailored to Mason's needs on an individual basis. Although its expensive, the hours Mason is receiving are critical to his progress.

Q: How do we know the money being spent is worth it?
A: We wish you could see Mason. We can't believe all he has accomplished in the past 5 months. Words can't describe what the private therapy is doing for Mason. Knowing this, we can't pull him out of it!! The more therapy he gets now the less he will need later. If we can get him ready to mainstream into kindergarten, we will be able to decrease if not eliminate therapy!

Hope

Mason has come so far in his short three years of life.

Around 12 months of age Mason began to talk, with a vocabulary consisting of 4 words. At 15 months those words disappeared and Mason became silent. At that time we started to watch Mason deteriorate, completely slipping out of our world and into his own. Mason stopped responding to his name, he stopped making eye contact with others, he would sit on the floor and play by himself, he didn't interact with anyone. He became unaware of his surroundings. Mason stopped smiling and laughing. It was difficult as parents to watch our sweet little baby slip away and we couldn't do anything about it. Mason's behaviors worsened with time, he began flapping his hands and spinning himself in circles, he stopped playing with his toys, he would throw himself on the floor screaming and biting his hands. Everyday he seemed to slip away even more, and still there was nothing we could do. Therapy began for Mason at 16 months of age and with time we started to see progression. After about 4 months of therapy, Mason said his first word, "cow" while playing with his animals. It was the sweetest little "cow" we had ever heard.

From that day forward we have seen incredible progress in Mason. One of the biggest contributors to Mason's progress is the sacrifice our family made by moving up to Oregon for more extensive services. All the things a typical child can learn on their own can slowly be taught to a child with autism, one concept at a time and in very small steps. We are grateful that Mason is such a hard worker, so smart and eager to learn. Being diagnosed so young, Mason has the ability to learn more rapidly and be better prepared for a brighter future!! The progress he is making is incredible and truly a miracle!!

Thank you for being a part of this journey with us and a part of Mason's life.

There is hope for Mason!!