My 4 year old son was diagnosed with autism at 2 1/2.

Up until 2 1/2 it appeared to me that my son was developing "normal". he crawled at 6 months sat up at 5months and walked at 8 months old totally unassisted. he was talking and

singing and all those thing at around 16 months. He ate pretty much anything i put in front of him. he enjoyed playing with blocks and cars and loved digging in the dirt. He also loved climbing and this became harder and harder to control. He then started to become violent towards other children and wouldn't listen or even look at me.

Over a span of 6 weeks Hunter regressed so quickly and dramatically that he went back to like having an 8 month old son again. he stopped talking which he had been at an appropriate level for his age. he would not go in any other room than our lounge room and he would do circles around the room all day and if i picked him up he would kick and scream till i put him back down and he'd start the circles again. This got so extreme that me and my partner had to sleep in the lounge room with him. he would wake in the middle of the night screaming and staring at the wall and this would last about 3 hours every night i didnt know how to stop it at the time. He then developed a fear of water and i could not shower him or bath him just had to wash him with a cloth. He would not eat anything more because he was to wrapped up in his own little world to concentrate long enough. I fed him bottles of milk with child pentavite in it so at least i knew he was getting something.

I went to my GP because i knew that this wasn't the same boy i had 6 weeks ago. I would have taken him sooner but i guess i didn't want to admit that there could be something seriously wrong with my son as i have a disabled sister and have seen how hard life was for her and my parents. But when i went to my doctor we both admitted that something needed to be looked at so he set up an appointment for me with a paediatric neurologist at the Johns Hunter hospital and we spent three days there doing scans and x-rays to rule out tumor, epilepsy and damage done by a fall or bump ( which i knew hadn't happened). After the three days he sat me down and told me he was going with his initial thought and diagnosed Hunter with autism . I was stunned. I had always had a thought in the back of my mind that because of my sister being disabled that maybe one of my kids may have something wrong with them which i was ready to cope with with each of my chldren but Hunter seemed to develop so normal and to watch this happen broke my heart. I could see the frustration in his eyes sometimes when i knew he wanted something but he couldnt tell me. My poor partner Jason was in denial and was terrified that it was worse than what it was.

But i think because i have a sister who is disable i knew exactly what to do to get everything he needed as in speech therapy and occupational therapy and schooling. I contacted my local early intervention centre and had him assessed and enrolled so he could start the following february.

He started some speech therapy and i did my own at home. me and my partner would pull him out of his own little world and play repetative games with him until one day he approached us and wanted to play. From that day he has spoken ( and sometimes does not stop) He is more alert and he eats everything imaginable again. His talking has come  a long way since then and he is on track to going to a main stream school in 2010.

I know im not the only one out there that has had an experience like this but i guess by sharing it others will know they are not alone.

It comes as a huge shock to the system and is devastating but my son has a sense of humor is happy and enjoys life.