Golden Fund for Autism
Golden Fund for Autism

Richie Passannante

Did you know that 1 in every 150 children are effected by autism? My son Richie is one of those statistics.

Richard (Richie) is a 6 1/2 year old loving affectionate boy who loves to climb, swim and play. By looking at him you would think he was an average boy living an average life but, everyday of his life he battles with Autism. He is unable to communicate both verbally and socially. His difficulty with language and relating to people has impacted his ability to express his needs and wants and to make friends.

At the age of 1 1/2 we began to notice our son was different. He was unable to tell us what he wanted or play with us or other children. All our family and friends even our pediatrician kept telling us he is fine - All children develop different and that old age "Boys are slower then Girls". Just give it time. Still in our hearts we knew that something was wrong.

At 2 years old we had Richie evaluated and that is when our journey began. They said he has PDD/ NOS a form of Autism. We felt we need to find out everything we needed to know about Autism and do what ever he needed to help him. We started at home therapy. A teacher, speech therapist and an occupational therapist came to our house everyday. After 3 months he showed little to no progress.

Richie began a special Ed preschool at age 3 full-time for 6 hours a day along with ABA, Speech, OT, and PT. Richie showed some improvement but not enough. We needed to do more. We saw a DAN Doctor and were very disappointed with him and his methods of treatment. So again our search for new ideas to help Richie began.

When Richie was 6 we found a new DAN Doctor and The Long Island Spectrum Center. Dr. Mike was caring, understanding and helpful that we decided to give him a shot. Dr. Mike observed Richie and consulted with us and ran blood tests. He found that Richie was allergic to milk and lacking many vitamins and supplements in his diet and suggested a therapy called NET. We started the therapy, vitamins and the supplements.

Today after 6 months of NET, a Diary free diet and supplements we have seen improvements in so many areas of Richie's daily life (sitting, paying attention, not so active and verbally he has said a few words). This is only the beginning of a long road to recovery for Richie and our Family. Everyday we hear or read about new research and therapies to help him and we are willing to try what we feel is necessary to help Richie out of his "World" and into Ours.




Back To Sponsor A Child Page
Golden Fund for Autism