Our Special Angel

Meet our grandson, Stevie Jr. He will be 10 in July and has autism. Whenever I read of something new in the field of autism research, I get excited at the prospect that perhaps this will help to enrich Stevie Jr's life a bit more.

While browsing CNN.com I came across a video about a young girl who has an "autism dog". This is evidently the newest thing being tried to help to integrate these special needs kids into the world around them. The program appears to work much like the "seeing eye dogs" for the blind, though for an autistic person, the connection with a dog seems to give them a calm about unfamiliar surroundings. Often times our little guy will act out when put in a new situation for the first time. Our son, his father, works hard at making sure Stevie gets out around others as much as he can. He tries to expose his son to all sorts of experiences and with each new one, our little Stevie gains another big bunch of confidence in his world.

I'm hoping that there is a program for dogs near where our Stevie Jr can perhaps take advantage of it as well. Daily they find out more about this terrible affliction. They can't seem to find enough fast enough to suit this grandmother. =)

Till next time,

Mary