Apr 2, 2009 8:27 pm US/Eastern
World Autism Awareness Day: 1 Boy's Story
CBS 2 HD Visits Wonder Boy: 12-Year-Old Damien Reid
Reporting
Cindy Hsu
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
It's estimated that every 20 minutes someone in the world is diagnosed with autism.
On Thursday, millions of families marked World Autism Awareness Day by sharing their stories.
CBS 2 HD met one of those families.
When Damien Reid was born, his parents saw no sign that something may be wrong. But at 2 years old, after an evaluation for preschool, a psychologist broke the news.
"I was extremely shocked. I really didn't know what autism was," said Damien's mother, Christina Mendez.
Damien's parents were told that he would likely end up in a group home, may never end up showing affection or emotion and would likely not communicate.
"He wasn't going to interact with no one," father Daniel Reid said. "That he was going to need somebody there with him 24 hours, that he wasn't going to be speaking that he wasn't going to be playing with anybody."
Today, Damien is 12 years old, is bilingual and talks up a storm, even testing CBS 2 HD's knowledge of reptiles.
He took me on a tour of his classroom at Hawthorne Country Day School in Harlem, and wanted me to know all about his classmates.
His parents said the key is early diagnosis and intervention.
"If you can catch it early, catch it at 2, 3 years old there's a great, great improvement factor there," Daniel Reid said.
Damien's mother turned his bedroom into a classroom, and went into overdrive when it came to education.
"Everything I read on the Internet that worked, I just gave him like 20 times that," Mendez said.
She said she documents everything and said there are countless free services from camps, to after-school programs. The key is finding them by networking with parents and autism support groups.
Damien's parents said they learn from him everyday.
"Thanks for watching the school and bye bye," Damien said.
For more information about autism, including the signs to look for, please click
here.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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