Our Journey
My autism journey began when my AJ was 12 months old. He was not meeting milestones on his Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3) test that children take at the pediatrician for monthly check ups. Up until that time he was hitting all milestones and I was relieved because after several miscarriages, we finally had our rainbow baby. We soon found that he was not speaking. I reached out to my local Child development office known as CDSA in Charlotte, NC. It was found that he was Level I/II autistic. I literally could not believe that there was a “problem” with my beautiful blessing.
With proper diagnosis at 18 months, he started receiving free services through the department. Then I soon realized he would age out at 3 and I would have to provide services at cost or enroll him in a Pre-K program that I knew he would not be successful at. It was then I decided that I would become my child’s best advocate and provide the services privately and pay out of pocket. With hard work and determination, our child went from being non-verbal to now doing math in kindergarten. This is impart to our village and community of autistic families. We want to make sure that other families have the same access to services that our child has. This foundation was created to not only educate but alleviate the stress that comes with the diagnosis and life after.
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Tonya Tolson
Executive Director, AJ and the Cool Kids
