Lisa Simmons

Some is more exaggerated.

Their fine motor skills are just delayed.

And so just looking at those things, it doesn't always mean it's autism.

you could just have you know a learning difference and that's not autism so autism has been uh you know sort of broadly defined these days but um you know i think again trust your instincts that's what i would i always tell moms if you think something's wrong

There probably is something wrong.

And on the other hand, when a doctor tells you something, oh, your child is never going to be able to do X, Y, or Z. Talk about that with Daniel a little bit.

When we left our first real testing, Daniel was about five.

Yeah.

And the doctor said, you know, according to his test, he has PDD-NOS.

What?

Which means they don't know what the heck it is.

Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, which means we don't know what the heck it is.

But whatever it is, it's affecting his whole body.

So he gave me sort of a list.

I remember him sitting right beside me, and he had Daniel run for, you know, now you see how he's running and how his gait is.

You know, that means he's never going to ride a bike.

He's never going to, you know, just do all the kid things.

And so I shook my head like I, you know, okay, I hear you.

And he got a bike for Christmas.

Because I wasn't going to let my five-year-old, who I just wasn't going to take that as an answer.