
When I first started noticing signs of autism in my son at 6 months old, I was initially overwhelmed with emotions. Guilt, anger, sadness, and isolation from the outside world. To see how far we’ve come close to 2 years after my son’s diagnosis’, I am amazed and so proud of the journey. As a mom, I quickly learned to celebrate my son’s differences and embrace his unique strengths and talent. Looking back, I realize how much of my son’s newborn/toddler stage I missed due to struggling with Post-Partum Depression and being in a cloud of denial.
From over-analyzing everything my son did and worrying about the why.
Dreading the well-baby visits because I knew we wouldn’t be able to answer most questions in the milestone packets.
Comparing other children around his age that were scores ahead in development.
Beating myself up over the “Worst case scenarios” and many late night Google research settings.
And the most heartbreaking for me..not all of our family interacts with Drake. First comes the anger..then the vindictive and pettiness to try to “hurt” the family back..Then you realize that you can’t force someone to want to be in his life and that they’re missing out on what a great child he is. Then comes the phase of cutting people out and finding peace. Get to know all about Drake here!
First Signs of Autism That we Noticed
We first started really tunnel-visioning in on our son’s development at around 6 months old. Drake was officially diagnosed with Autism at age 4 with high support needs. Drake has several needs, so we’ll just focus on signs of autism we noticed early on for now.

- Loved being in his own world, since he was a newborn. 99% of the time happy and never really cried much. He didn’t like to be held often and preferred being swaddled or cuddled with his stuffed elephant.
- Lack of eye contact/no response to his name.
- Regression – Never really babbled as a newborn. Said his first word “dada” and “pizza” at around 1 years old then stopped talking completely.
- Similar to being in his own world – He never really noticed other kids trying to play with him and preferred to be off by himself. He’s becoming more social recently with select people.
- Restrictive Interests – We spent countless $$ on ALL. THE. TOYS. Trying to find anything that he’d be interested in. He just didn’t like playing with any toys. Lining things up is one of his favorite things to do.
- Stims – We love the stims. Jumping up and down all day long, hand flapping, finger tapping, rewinding specific parts of videos, and chewing everything.
- Memory – Although he is considered non-verbal, he has AMAZING photographic memory. He can watch a video once and memorize every country flag, script videos word for word, and now scripts in several languages.
- Insomnia – Drake is a never ending ball of energy, day and night. He struggles to fall to sleep/stay asleep.
Please remember that Autism is a spectrum, and while there are common early signs of autism, it’s not a one size fits all. While this isn’t a 100% indication that your child has autism, it’s absolutely worth discussing with your pediatrician. I’ve included a more in-depth signs of autism checklist here.
I wish we would’ve received a diagnosis before age 4, so that we didn’t worry as much about the unknowns. Drake is amazing, and anyone who has the chance to meet him is lucky to get to know him. The love that he has for us, and the way he views the world teaches me something new every single day. He has such a sweet, fun-loving, energetic personality and its all because of the amazing things that his disabilities contribute to. While there can be challenging things at times, there are so many good things that have stemmed from autism that I recently discovered.

I wanted to walk through our journey so far leading up to diagnosis, to give hope to all of the parents out there who are told “Boys develop slower..they’ll catch up.” The word “Autism” or “special needs” is a scary word for most people. Whenever brought up in conversation I would often see a look of terror with an awkward response “I’m so sorry.” While most people may mean well, but it’s an alarming rate of people who just don’t understand Autism and acceptance.
I wish someone, anyone, would have told me sooner that Autism + special needs isn’t a death sentence, but rather a different way of seeing and experiencing the world. We’re now almost two years in from diagnosis..This journey has helped me grow as a mother raising a child with special needs, and has taught me to appreciate the beauty in our differences and find joy in every moment!
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