Speak Out

A recent Speaker's Stand in The Star that discussed autism ("Autism deserves our attention," April 16) had a special meaning to our family.

We are one of those 1 in 150 statistics accurately quoted as the rate of autism affliction today. Our beautiful, precious daughter is high-functioning autistic. Obviously, her symptoms have been evident since age 2 1/2.

As much as we spent and hard as we tried, she was not correctly diagnosed and treated until she was 25. The saddest chapter of our struggle is that she was being treated incorrectly for all those years and missed her entire childhood.

With advanced medical procedures and state-of-the-art doctors in Birmingham, at age 25 her condition was accurately diagnosed and she was placed on a trial drug. Without any exaggeration, she literally made a 180-degree change in 24 hours on the drug.

Today, nine years later, she lives a happy, fairly normal life. She loves to do all the meals for the family (she is an excellent cook), does her own shopping unescorted, and has attended summer camps the past four years alone. She performs with a young adult singing group, traveling regionally.

During her years in the public school system, she was again inaccurately assessed as being mentally retarded, where her records still reflect as such. After correct treatment, she was tested again, this time by medical professionals, and her IQ tested in the normal high range.

We are not bitter about our experience. On the contrary, we feel so blessed to have located the wonderful team of medical professionals who have shown us a diagnosis of autism is not the end of the world for families.

I urge those other families in the 1 in 150 number to choose medical care for your child carefully. Read, research, talk to other families, but act early, and by all means never feel guilty for what is happening. Life can be wonderful, enjoyable and very worthwhile with autism in the family. We know.

James W. Anderson and family — Sheila, Lori and Blake — live in Talladega.