As many of you know Landen was diagnosed at 2 1/2 with severe Autism and he is non verbal. The journey has been nothing short of a roller coaster of emotions. Landen was verbal as an infant saying your typical words mama, doggy, moon , and stars the sky is his favorite place to stare, progressed as he should and met all his milestones . After developing viral meningitis shortly after his 1st birthday and being hospitalized he stopped speaking, responding to his name, and stopped making eye contact . Being told your child is Autistic isn't the scariest part although it was hard to hear I can handle that what was hard to handle was navigating through all the therapies and doctors and figuring out what I needed to do to give my son the best shot at life! Autism is confusing because it is a neurological condition and anything dealing with the brain is very complex and there is a lot unknown. What we do know is Landen has brain damage that most likely attributed to him being Autistic. The brain damage came from 2 things 1 from having minimal oxygen in the womb and a very traumatic birth that caused PVL brain damage and 2 viral meningitis caused some damage as well. It took 3 years of specialist and lots of tests to finally discover what was going on within his brain. With all life has thrown at him he starts every day with a huge smile! He can melt your heart within seconds and as we all say in our family “this is Landen’s world, and we just live in it!” He has come so far, he is able to communicate on his device, he makes great eye contact, and is a very happy kid! None of this progress would be possible without organizations like Autism Speaks who make it their mission to help families like ours and continue the research needed to better understand Autism! Autism Speaks Walk is a cause we participate in every year! There is so many more resources and research needed for families and children living with Autism. Autism Speaks advocates, researches, and provides so many resources for families it is a phenomenal organization!