Hello, my name is Dana and I am 41 years old. I am an attorney, I am married, and I have four children. I homeschool all four of my children, and I do legal work part time from home.
When my second child was diagnosed with autism at age 3, I began searching the internet to learn more about him and who he is, and I was surprised to discover that I also qualified as AS, which I will use here to refer to Autistic Syndrome although I am aware it is used for other uses as well. My third child would probably qualify as PDD, but I have not pursued an official diagnosis for him. My first and fourth child are NT.
For my family, autism is the result of genetic predisposition plus vaccine trigger. However, I do believe for other families it may be purely genetic, or for other families it may be outside or environmental triggers. My family is doing well with the gfcf diet, digestive enzymes, chelation, and DTT-NET, among other things. For other families, other interventions may be appropriate.
I created this site on another server on March 15, 2001, because several people have told me that information I have provided on many message boards has been helpful for parents who are trying to understand their AS children. I have included my original writings that I have posted as replies to parents and educators on several message boards, the original writings of a few other AS and NT adults who have allowed me to use their writings, and many links to other sites which I have discovered are helpful for parents and educators. Additionally, I wanted to provide information for AS adults, and have some fun too. I have attempted to include here the information which I have found has been useful for many families, but my intent is not to be comprehensive in my approach. I have included sites with comprehensive information for those of you who are interested in learning more information.
In December 2001, my site was becoming too large for my allocated server space at my previous site address, so my friend Sean Kelly allowed me to use space on his server, with his domain name autismchannel.net. This allows me to include more information, artwork, and graphics. Plus my site address was much easier to remember now than it was before. Thank you Sean!
In November 2002, I purchased my own domain name, so now when I need or want to move my site to another server, my site address won't change.
Currently, my site is hosted by Wendy's Web
Thank you to all of you for tolerating me through all these moves!
Acknowledgments
I would like to especially thank Wendy Fournier, Bill Stewart, Sean Kelly, Dad, Stacie, noone, Karen D., Cindy K, and others who have allowed me to use their original material on my site, Dad and Cheryl for providing me with links to other good sites, and hubby for helping me get this onto the Internet.