Alex & Tommy’s Story

Meet Our Students > Alex & Alex’s Story

My twin boys, Alex and Tommy, were diagnosed with autism when they were 2 and a half years old.

Today everyone seems to know of someone diagnosed with autism. What you don’t hear about nearly as often is the fact that effective treatment exists for children with autism. And what you hear even less of is how placements in these effective programs is in critical short supply.

Part of Garden Academy’s mission is getting word out about effective treatment and about the struggle parents face in getting access to the help their children need and are entitled to.

To help with that goal, I have had reporters and photographers in my home to let them see and hear things I never thought I would want to share publicly. So have a number of other families at Garden Academy.

We feel that we owed it to other families of children with autism to show them that they can strive for the education that is right for their children. By going public, hopefully, we inspired someone to fight for schools like Garden Academy. Hopefully, our example will help other children have a chance at reaching their full potential.

It is very odd to walk into the store and see your picture on the cover of a newspaper.  Especially since the picture was of me sitting on the bathroom floor as I bathed my son. But when I saw it, I realized that many parents could relate to the challenges that we all face as part of what we are trying to accomplish at Garden Academy.

Laurie (Alex & Tommy’s Mom)