Sam had a hard beginning.  He was born early and had so much that is involved with being a micro-preemie.  Emily had been so patient and kind and knew that it would always go well.  Then she started to notice small things.  He did not seem to want to talk, even for his delays he should have been talking by about 2.  He was just using sounds and grunts and lots of pointing.  She had his hearing tested, but his ears were fine.  No, this was something else. 

Then she started to notice that he had strange ways of playing with his toys, they always had to be a certain way. He always had a soundtrack going on too.  Just little noises, but constant with his playing.  Also he would not play with other kids, he would play near them, but not with them.  Also he did not like loud noise or to be held to long or touched by strangers.

Emily took these to her Doctor and found out that her son Sam had Pervasive Developmental Disorder and it was something he may or may not grow out of and was not altogether uncommon for former micropreemies like him.  The game was to wait and see and if he progressed further in six months to bring him back. 

Six months went by and Sam started to look less and less into her eyes, stopped making noises even when he wanted something unless he was really angry. And then the fits started.  He would throw himself against the floor or the wall and hit his head repeatedly.  Emily was devastated, she had wanted so much to communicate with him and know she was getting through.  Sam was put on meds by his doctor and started “school” for little kids like him. 

Everyday Emily would pray that a miracle would happen and every day Sam came home and was the same.  He had to have the same schedule, same meal, same routine and it was all killing Emily.  She would get him off to bed and then ask her husband Joe to watch him while she went for a run.  One evening as she was running, Joe called in a panic, Sam had gotten up and Emily was not home.  He had started having a fit and Joe was not fast enough to keep him for cracking his nose on the wall.  Emily sprinted the rest of the block to the house and ran to Sam’s side.  His nose was bleeding and he was making horrible sounds of protest to having Joe hold him down.