Early Autism Diagnosis

Branden Nolden was diagnosed at at 3 with autism, however if his family had the proper resources earlier he would have not missed a critical window of development. His story is the same of many families who cannot afford the same care that wealthier families have. The children in these families are missing critical times of development for their children. Since this is big problem as 55 to 66 in 10,000 children are diagnosed with autism every year. Groups are now working to make better resources available for poorer families.

I really enjoyed how this article started. It told the story about a boy who received a late diagnosis for autism. It brought the story down to a level most people can understand. It did not just flat out tell you what autism is, but rather it announced the problems and hardships autism can bring onto a family and the child. The lead was long and was in a multi-paragraph format, however I think it worked well for this particular story because it gave the reader time to get to now Branden and his story. I think the fact that the story was brought back to Branden and his mother in the ending tied the whole story together and made it flow nicely.