When my mom went to the doctors to get an ultra sounds, they told my mom that my twin sister was developing normally but they did not say the same for me. They told my mom that I would never be able to do anything by myself because my brain was not developing right and that I would always need someone there. The day that my sister and I were born, my sister cried but I did not make a noise. The doctors came in and told my mom that i would be a vegetable for my whole life. She did not believe them and told them that he will be normal. It wasn't till I was three years old when I was diagnosed with asperger's syndrome. Our family could not afford to take me for therapy or could afford medication. Over the years I slowly became higher functioning, or becoming like a "normal" child. I have always been one of those children who likes to prove people wrong. I found about my story when I was in middle school and ever since then, I have been proving the impossible, what the doctors told my mom years ago, that I would not be able to do anything. I am 20 years of age and i am a collegiate wrestler, an all state track thrower. and am going to college where i have met many people on my own and loving every minute of it. If I could give one word of advice to parents with an autistic child, its there is no such "normal" autistic children are like everyone else, we just have there own way of doing things. we might so tasks better then other people. Never doubt them and let them be who they are.

Josh Stokes
Linden, MI