Help give my son a voice!

Hi, my name is Briana. I am a 29 years old, married to a wonderful husband, we are a blended family, and I’m a stay at home mama to 5 beautiful children . Three of them are in school, and the other two are under the age of 3. This is a little story of my son Oliver.

My sons name is Oliver, he is 2 1/2 year old and is diagnosed with ASD back in July of 2021. He is also non verbal. Oliver was showing signs at a very young age. He wasn't acting like a normal baby, wasn't giving me much attention, he wouldn’t look at me when I would call for him, and the top of it all he didn't babble like any other baby. Every pediatrician visit I would go to I would be ask has he spoke two or three words, he put at least two words in a sentence, does he hold a stuffed toy and hug it, will he hold a phone up to his ear. Of course my answer would also be no. Around 10-11 months old Oliver would “play” with his cars by lining them up. After he would take his last car in the line he would pick it up, than move it to another spot. He would do this over and over again. When he would get super excited about something he would flap his arms really fast, jump like a rabbit, run around the house, and twirl. (Some signs we also noticed.) When his other siblings would play with him he would get not pay much attention to them, but when they did try to interact he would get upset.

Oliver would need assistance while needing something or if he needed help he would pull my hand and try to use mine. (Non verbal children will need help because they can’t tell you what they need.) At his 2 year check up, I would get asked the same type of questions. Now he was “suppose” to have at least 8-10 words, be able to tell you what he wanted, how he was feeling, tell me if he was hurt. Just hard to say no to all those questions. He was delayed on speech. The pediatrician referred him to get tested for autism. Me being the mom at the moment I was scared. It didn't take long for us to get a call to head out to Riley children's hospital to get a diagnosis. There were four women in the room. I was told before they started the test not to interact with him. If he tries to hand you toys, if he tries to pull you to help him, just tell him no. While him After an hour or so of them watching him "play,” they had to leave to talk about when they seen. They came back and told me that he was autistic and he became diagnosed with ASD. I instantly started to cry. It wasn’t the fact I was sad because he was, it wasn’t that I knew at a very young age, it was hearing it from someone else’s mouth that he was. I was given a folder with resources, information about ASD is. The real journey was about to begin!!

After a few weeks, I got calls for therapy for Oliver to start. First came speech and development therapy. After a while I had to bring in occupational therapy. My son wouldn’t eat food. Trying to have my son try food wasn’t and still isn’t successful. He just likes to snack and be on the go. My son started to shine once he started watching videos of abc, numbers, colors, shapes. The top favorite thing my son loves is letters of the alphabet.

He loves anything that deals with letters. He will put his abc in order and repeat and repeat. He could put his letters in order all day everyday. So when he gets obsessed with those, it’s my job to make sure those are all found. Man, do you know how hard it is trying to keep track of those letters when he is on the move! I love that he wants to learn, he has something he truly loves to do. My son is truly a bright, smart, sweet, caring little boy.

The reason for this go fund me is to get a device for my son so he can have a voice. He would be able to use it to tell me what he needs, if he is hurt. He would be able to talk to me! I would love to hear what he can truly say from his own voice, but right now that’s not looking what is on our plate right now. The communication device would change the way he sees, how he can have that and be able to choose what needs. He won’t have to take my hand and stare at what he wants and I have to guess what he needs.

Not only would the money go for the device it would help build his own sensory room!! His own area. I know he likes to have some space, he loves having his own. Next month in April is my birthday month and it’s also a special month it’s AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH!! My very wish is to have my son have whatever he needs to accomplish his needs! This would be so great to have for community I live in, the people I know. If you can just donate $5,10,20, whatever your heart feels that can donate!! Thank you for reading this long story about my son.