Pray for Autism Now!
P.A.N.
Of course you have heard of DAN (Defeat Autism Now) and CAN (Cure Autism Now). Without being too hokey I would like to offer this page as a similar focus for parents and professionals touched by autism. Autism has intrigued me for years. It has also scared me for years. The thought of a normal child suddenly slipping away from you into a world of aloneness and unimaginable fears scared me. As I try to do with all my fears, I brought my fear of autism to God. He has blessed me with seven wonderfully normal children and seven wonderfully normal grandchildren (two with special needs).
However, it was not always so wonderful. Between eight and eighteen months of age, I began to see scary symptoms in my granddaughter. She was a good baby but did not respond to me. She would look toward odd little sounds but not my voice. I could bang a pot behind her and get no startle response, in fact, no response at all. Her hearing and development were fine, according to her pediatrician. She arched away from me when I held her, did not cuddle, did not play with toys, did not look at me or look at things I pointed out to her. I feared the worst. Because I assess childen for developmental delays and autism, I kept a running assessment on her abilities. She was below average but not seriously so.
Knowing just enough about autism to get me in trouble, I did two things: pray and bought vitamins. The vitamins I found had Vitamin B-6 and Magnesium, something I knew to effective with some children with autism. They were a store brand liquid multi-vitamin for infants. I instructed my daughter to give two doses a day. My wife and I prayed daily for our granddaughter and our Sunday School class prayed as well. We also began to spend more time interacting with our granddaughter, rewarding eye-contact, redirecting her when she stared at the fan or her hands, helping her to deal with textures she disliked, teaching her to come when called, and helping her to do a hundred other things that other babies did naturally. Slowly, we began to see results. Our granddaughter began to develop language, respond to our voice, imitate things we did and said, and (most importantly) hug us back when we hugged her. Our granddaughter is now eleven years old. We occasionally see remnants of the old symptoms but these are all within normal limits. She is conversing normally, in fact, way too much at times! She attends a regular school and gets all "A"'s. Praise the Lord! I have stopped assessing her and now just love and enjoy her.
So what happened? Did she have autism? She clearly could have been diagnosed with PDD-NOS but we have never had her officially diagnosed, nor will we unless she develops symptoms again. I am not sure what happened but I believe God gave us wisdom and had mercy on our granddaughter by healing her. I continue to pray for her every day. We praise God for His healing!
My job is training children with autism to respond to their parents, teachers, and others. I also train the parents to understand autism, behavior modification, and teach them to work with children with autism in the same way I do. I pray for the children and parents I work with. God has been merciful and loving, as He always is.
This journey in the world of autism has led me to believe that the cure for autism lies in the hands of our Almighty God! He has helped me to see that the increase in autism in these latter days may well lead to a cure. What I ask of each of you who love the Lord is to pray each day for a cure for autism. Pray that doctors, researchers, and professionals will have God's wisdom in completing their research and will clearly see the connections between symptoms, treatments, and findings which will help them to discover God's cure for autism. Pray this prayer (or one of your own) daily:
"Dear Father, forgive me and my nation for our sins. We have failed to look to You for help with this disorder called autism. Forgive us. I pray that You will lead us to find a cure for autism. Lord, You made us, You know each cell of our body, You know where autism originates, You know what goes wrong in people with autism, You know what will cure this disorder. Lord I pray for a miraculous cure for all children with autism. Please give families strength to deal with autism. Give them wisdom and help them find people who will truly help them and not take advantage of them. Lord, I pray also that You would lead researchers to find a cure for autism. Help the researchers to be humble, to seek You, to understand the connections between the physical, biological, chemical, and immunological findings in autism research. Open their eyes to find new connections and help parents to share their own discoveries and findings. Let there be a new cooperation among the researchers that will lead to a true cure for all autism. I give You the glory for this cure. Thank You, Lord, for hearing my prayer. Thank You, Lord, for having mercy on the thousands of children with autism. I pray this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, my Savior. Amen." ~GJH~