After waiting months for an appointment with Inland Regional Center, we were finally on our way. I was very nervous and unsure as to what we were dealing with. I just wanted to know what this "Autism" thing was and why it had taken my son from us.
Our first meeting with the Regional Center did not give us any clues. We met with a doctor who told us our son had some bizarre behaviors, but he wasn't sure what was wrong. I gave him the note from my doctor and he shook his head. He did not agree with the pediatrician's suspicion's. He said my son didn't fit the criteria for Autism because he was too affectionate (as Brandon was wrapping his little arms around my neck).
Remember this was 1988 and Regional Center was just getting the first wave of kids with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). The doctor did say, however, that my son qualified for services because he had a Developmental Disability. The diagnoses was something called PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified).
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When we returned home that day, I started reading the information my mother had given me on Autism. Brandon truly fit the criteria from what I could tell.
We decided to go to UCLA and get a second opinion. We met with one of the leading doctors at the time. After answering a few questions about Brandon, the doctor took him into another room. We sat at a two-way mirror and watched as she tried to get Brandon to engage with her. She came out after about 10 minutes and told us that not only was Brandon autistic but that he was a classic case.
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Our pediatrician wasn't too far off with her diagnoses, but it wasn't late onset it was Classic Autism. We had no idea what the difference was, just that the word AUTISM was his diagnoses.
The doctor was surprised at how calm my husband and I were. We were pretty much expecting what we heard and looked at each other and asked "what now?"
We took our son's new diagnoses back to the Regional Center and, after further testing, they agreed with the report from UCLA. So now Brandon was officially entered into the system as a child with Autism at the age of 2 years 5 months.
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