Guest Post: "Your daughter is on the spectrum of autism..."

If you've followed our blog at all, you know we do an annual post about autism for 2 reasons: my first job out of college involved working as a teacher at the New England Center for Children, a school for children with autism, and now that I'm a parent, I've seen, first-hand, the prevalence of autism, so I'm passionate about increasing awareness.

For this post, we reached out to a friend whose daughter has autism, asking if he'd be willing to share about the following: When did you first suspect that Zoe had Autism?  What did you do?  What are your favorite activities that you and Zoe enjoy?

Eric - Thank you for sharing so candidly. 

"20 months went by, and it all felt normal. Zoe and I were thick as thieves and I loved spoiling her. I couldn't help myself. She loved swings, she loved being held by daddy and boy did she like to eat (daddy's girl for sure!) We thought everything was fine...I think about it constantly, did I miss the signs earlier? I don't know...but it still haunts me as early intervention is crucial with young kids on the spectrum. As the months went by we started noticing a couple of things leading up to her 2nd birthday that started to concern us. Anytime she would pick up a new word or skill, she would lose something she already knew. She was a bit slow in walking and when she did start to walk she would walk on her toes. She seemed to fixate on certain objects...I think my wife and I both had read enough about autism that we were starting to see some red flags. We decided to take her to a developmental pediatrician...I think we both hoped that the doctor would call us paranoid and tell us we were imagining things...that's not how things worked out. "Your daughter is on the spectrum of autism..." It felt like a vacuum had sucked all the air out of the world. It was devastating. My flashes forward on that day were darker and in a quiet moment alone I cried until there were no more tears. Would there be a father-daughter dance now, how do I protect her from this, she does not deserve this...I was sad, I was angry, but most of all I was afraid. Afraid is the unknown, afraid I would never get to know the girl inside of Zoe, afraid autism would take her away from me."January 23, 2011, in the middle of one of the biggest snowstorms NYC had ever seen, I held in my arms the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on, my daughter, Zoe. It was love at first sight. I was smitten and I was never going to let her go. It's weird, I distinctly remember sitting in that hospital room with this little nugget beside me, flashing forward to her wedding day and wondering what our father-daughter dance would be like, and how bittersweet it would be for me. Less than 24 hours in the world and I was already feeling territorial haha.

There was a short grieving process and then Heidi and I went to work. We weren't going to let this diagnosis take her away from us. We went about getting Zoe all the tools she would need to reach her full potential. We secured district support to enroll Zoe at REED Academy, we hired speech therapists and private ABA therapists. We threw all our resources at trying to improve Zoe's quality of life. She's sharp as tacks...she just learns differently and she has to fight through a cacophony of sensory input that I will never fully grasp just to simply focus. I'll never truly understand her struggle, but she is a fighter and she comes from a family of fighters and we are making progress thanks to hard work dedication and a strong support system of friends and the folks at REED.

Zoe is 5 now...she's the same kid really. Happy disposition, loves a good adrenaline rush, loves to eat. We love to be outside together, love to sneak cupcakes and ice cream when we are not supposed to but mostly we love to just be together. We are inseparable. We have a special connection...and while she may not say the words all the time, she doesn't need to. She loves her daddy and daddy will always love her to the moon and back." - Eric Chung

This year, Eric is trying to raise $20,000 for the Go the Distance for Autism charity ride. He will be doing 25 miles. Please consider joining Team Zoe as a rider or a "virtual rider" by clicking this link http://www.gtd4autism.org/team/jointeamzoe and help Eric [and Zoe] reach their goal! Note that corporate matching went a long way last year, so please take advantage should that option exist for you. Just click the SUPPORT ME button.