I am a widow and single mother of a mildly to moderately autistic boy.  He will turn 3 years old in two weeks.  He was diagnosed with Autism just before his 2nd Birthday.  When he was diagnosed he couldn't talk or communicate, he wouldn't respond to his name, and there was no eye contact.  He was still drinking from a bottle and still eating baby food.  He has improved a lot in the past year.  His eye contact is really great now, he responds to his name, has learned to communicate some, immitate and initiate words.  He is now trying to tell us what he wants sometimes.  He drinks from a sippy-cup, sometimes from a straw, and sometimes out of a regular cup.  He still eats baby food.  We are still working on trying to get him to eat table food.  Because of his sensitivity to textures and also because change is hard, he will not eat anything he has to chew.   I have learned that parents are the best advocates for their children.  Parents know their children better than anyone.  What works for one child may not work for another child.  Each parent has to figure out what works best for their child, this could be true for normal children as well as autistic children. My son has a speech therapist, occupational therapist, and play therapist.  He has also been in daycare 3 days a week around normal children.  My son has a happy, sweet, loving, and playful nature.  He relates well to me when I play with him.  He likes games, like peek-a-boo. He is becoming good at imaginative and pretend play.  He likes to hide under the kitchen cabinet and laughs when I knock on the cabinet door and use a funny accent to ask where he is and say "knock-knock!"  He laughs when I use animated voices.  My son and I love to get silly and have fun together.  I often sing and use animated voices to try to teach him about bathing, brushing his teeth, and putting his clothes on.  This approach makes him laugh, pay attention, and learn a little about the activities we are engaging in. This approach can also be calming and soothing for him.  He loves music.  I have been singing to him since he was born.  It has always had a calming and soothing affect on him.  I didn't realize just how much it calmed  and soothed him or why until after he was diagnosed with autism.  I used to have to sing to him the entire time we were traveling somewhere in a car just to keep him from fussing the whole time.  Then my husband bought a DVD-player and Baby Einstein DVD's for the car.  Now he usually watches a DVD in the car, so I no longer have to sing the entire time while I drive.  Sometimes my son and I have our own little music time at home.   We get some of his toy music instruments, play them, dance and sing along to some music in the living room.  He can carry a better tune than I can.  He substitutes a syllable or two for the words to the songs.  More recently, he has started singing some of the words along with the songs.   I also bought magnetic alphabet letters to put on the refrigerator.  I am working with him on the alphabet.  He gets excited about the alphabet, "A-B-C's, A-B-C's," he says, excitedly.  He can identify and say most of the letters, now.  He loves the Alphabet Song.  He can't say the word Love, but one day he had rearranged some of the letters so that "LUV" was spelled out away from the other letters.  I think that was one of God's miraculous ways of helping my son to communicate his love to me.  On another day my son spelled out E-I-O, I guess because he loves the song Old MacDonald.  If you are looking for an inspirational story, my son inspires me everyday.  He is teaching me so much about love everyday.  My son is the true inspiration.  He is my inspiration.  He motivates me and keeps me going.   Love can overcome obstacles.  The most important thing we can do to help an autistic child or any child is love them.  Love is the greatest of all things.