A recent report from the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia shows that one in 68 children are born with autism.
For Bill Redfern, that staggering statistic is more than just a number.
He has three children, Lauren and Allison, twins who are nine years old and Alex, who is seven. Lauren and Alex have the disorder.
“You realize there’s something going on, especially with twins, which gives you a sort of benchmark with two girls growing up side by side,” Redfern said. “Lauren, who ended up with the autism diagnosis was developing faster than her sister Allison at first, and then one day around two years of age it was almost as if someone shut off a light switch and she stopped verbalizing words that she was already annunciating.
“She just withdrew, it was like she shriveled up inside of herself, her personality changed,” he said. “Immediately we knew there was a problem.”