My name is Pam and I am the head caretaker at the Laura Family Zoo. Ok, sometimes it just feels like a zoo. I am the grateful mother of four little ones (ages 4, 3, 2, and 10 months) with another due on Labor Day (fitting, huh?). Adam and I have been married for 6 years and often wonder how long it will be until the kids realize that they outnumber us! 

Last winter (2008), Adam and I started discussing our oldest son, Owen. We were concerned because at 18 months he was still not talking. Most people told us that we shouldn't worry because boys talk late and almost everyone had a story about their son, grandson, nephew, etc. who didn't say a word until 3 years old. Owen had hit all the other milestones, so we shelved the issue until June when he turned 2. We decided that it would be better to be safe than sorry, so we called our local ISD and scheduled Early On to assess Owen.

Early On accepted him into the program based on his lack of verbal communication and ruled out all the other possibilities, including hearing loss. When fall came around, Owen became eligible to enroll in Early Intervention where he began to receive speech therapy as well as fine motor and gross motor training. After waiting several months, we were finally able to take him to see a Developmental Pediatrician at a children's hospital where we received the diagnosis that Owen has an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Owen has made progress, but still does not verbally communicate. He has started to use PECS (picture exchange communication system), but there is no spontaneous communication yet. He will start pre-school in the fall in a special education early childhood classroom.