About Yester

Yester is a three-year-old little boy who was diagnosed with mild to moderate Autism on December 27, 2005. 

It took me and my husband 8 years, of our 11 year marriage, to have him.  After several doctor examinations it was clear that we were going to need “medical intervention” to conceive.  However, we decided to go a different route….prayer and acceptance.  I decided I didn’t want to become a science project so, we gave up and decided it would just be the two of us.  That was in October of 2002 and I was pregnant in late December, 2 months after our surrender. 

Yester’s middle name means: “gift from God” because that is exactly what he is.

His current love affair is with the Planets.  All 9 of them! We don’t care what the media says.  And yes, he knows them all….do you know all 9 planets? IN ORDER?  How many 3-year-olds do you know who can identify not just all 9 planets but a quasar, galaxy, telescope, satellite, rocket, and nebula?  I LOVE IT!! MY KIDS A GENIUS!!  Actually, I’m just his biggest fan.

When Yester was just an infant moving into the toddler years he loved shapes.  Everywhere we went a door was rectangle before it was a door.  A window was a square before it was a window and a clock was a circle before it was a clock.  Just like any typical child, Yester had his “thing.”

Also, like any typical kid, mine too loves television and movies.  I love when he adopts a NEW movie.  He has to watch it over and over and over again until ALL of us are sick of hearing it.  Right now, the current movie of choice is Harry Potter.  I’m trying to convince him that he was born a wizard.  The current television show of choice is Charlie and Lola.  Have you seen this show?  It’s really cute.  I think I just love their English accents.

In Yester’s first year of having the Autism diagnosis, he has done amazing things and has made fantastic progress.  On average he works about 30 hours a week.  At 19 months small red flags went up because of Yester’s loss and delay of speech.  At 24 months, he spent most of his birthday withdrawn from the crowd of visitors and enjoyed spinning building blocks rather than stacking them. The word AUTISM was introduced to me a few weeks later.

Yester’s official diagnosis came 3 months after and his helping state agency (Regional Center) got him started with services right away.  January came and still no language.  Yester could say about 25 words of which were mostly labels (i.e. duck, ball, circle, square, etc.).  The other 20 words or so he had were catch phrases or expressions he had stored in his memory from t.v. shows and movies.  None of his language was communicative and he spent most of his time pulling us, pointing, and grunting to tell us what he wanted. 

Four months into therapy and we had our own “BIG BANG” theory.  The language began to overflow.  We had just entered speech therapy but,  we can truly pinpoint our turning moments to our decision to persue bio-medical treatments and diet intervention.  In May, we began Applied Behavioral Annalysis (ABA Therapy) with the Lovaas Institute.  From May until now, ABA was the second most profound and result driven therapy we had chosen for our son.

By August of this year, Aiden was assessed to be age appropriate in vocabulary and receptive and expressive language.  It was unbelievable!  His sensory issues, as addressed in occupational therapy (OT), have become fewer and fewer.  But, most importantly….Yester’s social skills which have always been a strength, continue to successfully guide him towards more inclusion opportunities with his peers.

He is an amazing kid who provokes thoughts and prayers that continuously remind me what a better person and parent I am because of him.