We are a family of five. Our first born, Axell, was diagnosed with autism when he was 3 years of age (August 2004). His tests were all negative. He developed normally. I can remember a time when he was asking, "What's dish? (What's this?)." After 18 months, he simply did not talk at all. He has some words (erratic in talking) but is not conversational like normal kids. He had helped himself in different ways since he has learned that some things done over and over can bring boredom. He stopped lining things up when he was four years of age. He stopped watching his favorite movies (over and over and over...) unless he has some moves or phrases to imitate.
In April 2007 (5 yrs and 8 months old), he began to have echolalia. It was so nice to hear him repeat commands or words or simple phrases. In September 2007 (6 years and 1 month), we were able to ask him simple questions but sometimes we have to supply the answer and he will say it. We teach him after school and the rest of the day, he can do whatever he wants like play videogames, open and read books, watch his favorite movie, listen to children's songs and Enya (Yes, Enya!) and among others. The boy loves challenges and it is really important that he must be motivated to participate as he gets bored easily.
Intensive teaching started in Dec 2006 during his vacation time. I do not accept the label of autism with this boy because he is just delayed in speech but his mind functions well. His improvement in speech became noticeable in September 2007 as we have aforementioned. We took videos beginning in Jan 2007. He was only given speech therapy for two months and the insurance did not cover such treatment.