Julio (Age 5, He/Him)

Julio was born in 2020 right when the Covid scare began! We stayed home the first few years of his life missing his first birthday celebration even, due to him getting sick! When he was two, I noticed he started regressing with his words. He stopped saying “mom,” “dad,” and stopped eating almost everything. It became very clear that something was wrong. I talked to his doctor, but due to problems at home and his father’s family being bilingual, the doctor said that’s all it was.

When he was 3.5, she finally agreed something seemed off and allowed him to get sent for testing. Julio started going to Early On and learned so much. He started pointing to things when he wanted them and eventually was given a book to show us pictures of what he wanted. This was his form of communication with the world.

Issues with insurance delayed testing for two years. Finally in May 2026, I got him set up for testing for an official autism diagnosis. But then I got a phone call saying that the psychiatrist was unavailable and they would need to reschedule him out another two months. We were feeling very defeated at this moment.

By then, Julio had started a medicine with his family doctor to help with his behaviors since he was harming himself and struggling to sleep at night. The medicine only made things worse for him, and ultimately we decided to take him off of it the week before his appointment was scheduled. Another phone call, another reschedule. I reached back out to Community Mental Health and informed them what was going on. I said I was willing to drive wherever necessary in the state of Michigan to be able to get my son the care that he needed. 

They referred him to a place in Grandville. Officially, as of July, Julio was diagnosed with autism. There is still a long battle ahead to get him into ABA therapy, which he desperately needs to help him communicate just a little bit more, learn to communicate his wants, and express his feelings.