Dayana's Story: Accepting Autism

My name is Dayana Zamora and my son Eddiebo is enrolled at Kidango Peixoto in Hayward. Some of the challenges we had was getting him diagnosed with autism. At first, it was difficult. I was kinda in denial. I thought that it was just a phase that my son was going to grow out of, but then I did some research and tried to figure out what was going on. So I reached out to his doctor and that’s when she has suspicions of autism so we had someone diagnose him with autism.

It was really hard in the beginning because he did not know how to control his emotions. He would cry, bang his head on the floor because he didn’t know how to express the things that he wanted. Also the loud noises. At first I thought that it was just a phase and I would tell him “don’t be scared”. Now that I know what is going on with him, and the support of Jeanine (his developmental specialist), and Kidango have given me the tips of what to do with his emotions, we have overcome a lot.

He understands what is going on now. He knows how to follow one step commands. For example, throwing away the trash, wiping down the tables, washing your hands. I am very grateful for that. I feel like one of the outcomes is really [Eddie] coming out of his shell. It’s one of the best goals that we achieved because it was starting to become a problem with socializing with kids his age.