Jayden's and how his brain works.

Hey everyone, as you know we have been testing Jayden for Autism and have found out that he has Autism Spectrum Disorder. I found this analogy about the disorder. ...

Imagine a huge office building with the CEO on the top floor. The CEO directs everything and in a normal functioning brain he communicates with the other departments. Accounting, Sales, Support staff, Customer Service, etc... All of these departments work together to handle the day to day activity of the company. In an Autistic brain, none of the departments talk to one another, or don't do it in an effective way. Jayden may understand something( we are told 10-15% of the time) but he can't get it out. 30-40% of the time he is mimicking things that he has already heard or experienced. Imagine running a company in the same large building without the use of phones, email or Instant Messaging. With children with Autism Spectrum Disorder do not display the kinds of things that a child with classic Autism (i.e. "Rain Man", who was also a Savant) Jayden's diagnosis is that he has a good chance of having his speech become normal around the age of 10. He will be in speech therapy, occupational therapy and specialized school settings as long as needed until we feel like he is caught up. Also there is a chance that he will progress to a point where he stops and that is all he can gain with his brain. The percentage of kids like Jayden that can live a "normal life" is 70-80%. We hope and pray Jayden can understand and conceptualize what is being presented to him as he goes through this process. I know and understand that we all go through trials and problems and by no means do we want people to feel sorry for us... Jayden ROCKS and that is all that is needed to be said. We do have more sympathy for those we hear of going through tough times. Please know we understand! For those of you who want to learn more about this here are some web pages.

www.autism.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism

http://youtube.com/watch?v=46ycu3JFRrA (this is a 5 part YouTube article on Temple Grandin)

Please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you all and we hope that you all are doing well. Thanks for everything you all have brought to our lives...

With Love,
Kristin, Sterling, Trey, Jayden, Makenna and Noah