Autism. A diagnosis revoked

I just have to share this. It is incredible.

When Bright Eyes was diagnosed, I started to read the blog of a woman who had a son with ASD, Jacob, who sounded a lot like my boy, although probably about five or six years older.

I read the blog from beginning to end and was quite disappointed when she discontinued it. Jacob had gotten to Stage 6 in their RDI program (we are at the beginning of Stage 5) and she felt that she wanted to concentrate more on his home schooling. She was confident that he had made enough progress so that he was now on a good developmental track and would probably go further on his own naturally.

The other day I checked back there to see if the link was still active so that I could include it in a list of helpful autism resources, and I saw this news.

Jacob had his ASD diagnosis officially removed by his developmental paediatrician last year. She said that not only did he no longer meet the criteria for the diagnosis, but that his remaining symptoms are so mild that he would not be recognizable to anyone in the field as being 'on the spectrum'.

A diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) stayed in place, but only because he is still a year or eighteen months behind his peers in development. But his development is on a normal track. 

I am amazed, excited, astounded and very, very hopeful.