Craig and I just got back from the ARI conference in Las Vegas. The Autism Research Institute believes that autism is treatable and these children CAN get better. Once again this was an emotional roller coaster of a weekend for us. One of the highlights, was getting to meet the founder of TACA Lisa Ackerman. She is also one of the featured mothers in Jenny McCarthy's book "Mother Warriors".
Another highlight of the seminar for me was the hope for recovery. One of the lectures we listened to focused on how these children do get better. The speaker showed a video of a little boy who began biomedical interventions when he was 20 months old. He had many of the same issues Aidan has, and now he is five years old in a mainstream classroom and his teachers don't even know he once had autism. This video really was emotional for me to watch. I just felt so grateful that we have intervened so early for Aidan. Thank God we didn't listen to all the doctors and people who told us "he is a boy" or "he'll grow out of it, he is only two". Because we began so quickly the biomedical interventions, we have significantly raised our chances at a full recovery. Aidan meets the criteria for a child to make a full recovery, and I am so thankful for that. I have also learned lots of information about biomedical interventions and much I have learned has reaffirmed that Dr. Centers had lead us in the right direction. He knows what he is doing, and that makes us feel very confident in our DAN! doctor. In conclusion, it was a wonderful weekend and very uplifting. Craig and I finished the weekend with a nice lunch in front of the fountain show at the Bellagio. We both thought of Aidan, and how he would have love to seen it. We will take him there sometime in the near future.
