F & V: Passion & Purpose
Our autism journey began one month after F & V’s second birthday. The twins were 16 months old when we first notice significant speech delays, and just a few months later, we decided to have the girls evaluated to receive speech therapy. We also noticed a regression in spoken words that they once used, no longer making eye contact, using hand gestures and showed very little interest interacting with each other or with their other siblings. After ruling out other possible medical scenarios, our pediatrician recommended having the girls evaluated for autism spectrum disorder. The twins were seen by a developmental pediatrician, pediatric psychiatrist and a speech-language pathologist who determined F & V were both autistic and would require significant support needs in their lifetime.
Even though the diagnosis wasn’t something we had hoped to hear that day, it empowered us to immediately begin educating ourselves on how to best support our girls and advocating for other individuals in our community that walk a similar path.
ASD Inclusion was inspired by F & V, their diagnosis, as well as our journey since as a family. It has become our passion and purpose to help spread autism awareness and advocate for all individuals with disabilities.