First Post

My name is Paul Short, the father of James, who is now 6-1/2 years old. We live in Austin, Texas. I've started this blog for several reasons:

• To organize fragmented e-mails, notes, and literature related to James's autism
• To share this information with others
• To try my hand at blogging

I began having concerns about James's speech delay when he was three, but had no idea it was autism. I was also concerned that "the terrible twos" had slid into becoming "the terrible threes." In January of 2003, shortly before James's fourth birthday, his mother and I decided to divorce. My lawyer filed temporary orders on my behalf and we changed pediatricians in February. Within five minutes of meeting James, the new pediatrician wrote down, "suspect mild PDD". He referred James to a pediatric neurologist. In March the neurologist diagnosed James as having "moderate" Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD), a form of autism. The divorce was finalized in July and James's mother moved to San Diego that September. With his mother gone, the only family James had left in Texas was me.

Although the divorce was traumatic for both of us--much more so for James--it forced me to reprioritize my life and put him first. Our new life began. I dropped down to a 40-hour work week, and drove James to Occupational and Speech Therapy three times a week at From The Heart Therapy Services (FTHTS). I put him in an Early Childhood (EC/PPCD) program at Zilker Elementary. For day care, James started going to Open Door Preschool, a not-for profit school in Austin designed to support up to 25% special needs children mainstreamed with other "normal" children.

With the first month of being exposed to other children and with the Sensory Integration (SI) therapy James received at FTHTS, James began to show some signs of gradual improvement.

Links (somewhat provincial):

Pro Se Litigant Divorce in Texas
http://www.tyla.org/family_law.html
http://www.co.travis.tx.us/records_communication/law_library/forms.asp

'Specially For Children
Pediatric Specialities (including Neurology)
http://www.speciallyforchildren.com/

From The Heart Therapy Services
5524 BEE CAVE RD STE M
AUSTIN, TX 78746
(512) 306-1707

Open Door Preschool
http://www.opendoorpreschool.org/

AISD Special Education
http://www.austinisd.org/academics/specialeduc/coordinators.phtml