By Cris Italia
"Sorry he doesn't understand, he has Autism," the father replies.
"I didn't know your son was retarded," says the passenger. An insensitive comment from a misinformed person. Unfortunately. comments like these usually come from people that really don't know what it's like to have a child with a developmental disorder and don't know what Autism is.
Parents are never quick to accept whether their child will be typical, just like everyone else. The word "Autism" to many parents is frightening and sometimes they will avoid accepting their child's disorder for as long as possible. Indeed accepting the latter is hard, but what's even harder is the work ahead.
Karen Loiacano of Elmont, saw something different in her son even at the age of 18 months. Randy, was regressing just after the age of one. "I knew something was wrong, he had already started to speak, but at a young age he wasn't speaking as much anymore," Loiacano said. Randy's doctor confirmed her suspicions, but wanted to wait until he was two years old before giving a diagnosis.
"To me that was too long," Loiacano said. " I didn't want to wait that long, I wanted him to have intensive treatment right away." Randy was evaluated and was given speech therapy. After a month of therapy she realized her son was more than just speech delayed. "Doctors don't like to say the word Autism to parents, it's like a curse word." By the age of two, Randy was diagnosed with Autism, rare considering most children are diagnosed until they are nearing the age of three.
"It was hard to accept, but that's the difficult part, you have to get passed that and then you can really focus hard on doing something about it, Loiacano said. She took matters into her own hands, becoming what most parents sometimes are reluctant to be, an advocate.
"As a parent you have to research, you have to advocate for your child," Loiacano said of her role. Before the age of three, Loiacano discovered there were many programs to offer her son, but she realized the older he would get the harder it would be to gain them. She went to work looking into all possibilities. Despite therapy at home she needed to look into a pre-school program.
At the time, Nassau County had little to offer. Seven years living in Elmont, Loiacano never knew it would be this hard to find a quality program for her child. After a long search, she enrolled Randy into a program in Whitestone, Queens. Randy needed an ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) program, an intensive program which Nassau county didn't offer at the time.
With ample information, Loiacano was now well versed, and ready to do more. She learned of a rally in Washington D.C. where parents, advocates, and professionals, came together to inform the work of the growing epidemic. She joined Unlocking Autism (UA), a nation-wide organization strictly to promote awareness though the entire county, she could make a difference and spread the word that help was out there.
"The most important thing for parents to know is that there is help out there and there are other people just like them who have children with Autism, we should all come together and be supportive to each other" Loiacano said.
