Maisie Storm Angelique was born August 2, 1997 in at Scripps Hospital in Encinitas California to the Donovan family, proud parents Alfredo and Melinda Donovan and brother Sebastian.

We knew that we had been blessed with such a miracle and that we were so fortunate to live in an area with a highly respected school district for her to grow and thrive in, it was worth the additional property costs. We looked forward to a remarkable future, we were set, and we were lucky!

We put Maisie in the San Diego State University Child Development Study at 5 months of age, proud to support our community. Maisie was examined from the age of five months to almost three years of age and videotaped in a clinical setting.

Melinda, Alfredo, and Sebastian participated with Maisie in our local community activities, like the "Mommy and Me" exercise program in Calavera Hills Community Center and "Gymboree". We read to Maisie, played Mozart CD's, used flash cards, and played language tapes and spoke in different languages to her to increase her potential to be multilingual like her father.

When Maisie turned two, we enrolled her in the Miracosta Child Development Center while Melinda attended classes in Miracosta Community College. Very shortly after this was when we began to have a very different perspective about Maisie.

As her first semester in the Miracosta Children's Center ended, other children were beginning to speak quite clearly, but Maisie did not. She began very unusual obsessive behaviors. She continued to chew an unusual amount of the time like a teething child, and was very distressed when she could not chew. She began to chew her toenails off until her feet bled if we did not stop her. She had many many outbursts and started what can only be described as a complete regression. She was NOT growing up like the other children, she seemed to be getting younger, would not look anyone in the eye, and was under a great deal of distress and in physical pain often times. The worst was she could not speak but would plead with her eyes to a completely baffled, helpless set of parents and caregivers. When she would speak at all it would be something repeated from a video or television commercial over and over again.

We took her to her pediatrician and was given a Speech Evaluation by Children's' Hospital November 9, 2000. We were told she was in fact not okay and that the possibility of Autism needed to be assessed. Maisie apparently had a behavior called Echolalia, which meant even though she would repeat something from television; she really had no idea or comprehension of what she was saying. It was a classic symptom of AUTISM. We has no idea what Autism was. We came later to find out it is a brain disorder that is treatable with massive combined efforts. We were referred to Children's Hospital Development Evaluation unit which is so impacted she was added to a waiting list to even get an appointment to be seen as we were losing neuron development by the second.

We called every day to see if there had been any cancellations. To our great delight there happened to be a cancellation December 23, 2000 that allowed her to be seen and evaluated much earlier then at first predicted. This evaluation was very helpful in getting Maisie help early in all four branches of services. This early intervention facilitated a great deal of additional neuron development that would not have happened in Maisie had the process been delayed. We only wish we had been able to navigate services for Maisie much, much sooner to have facilitated an even better foundation for successful neuron development.

We would like to thank at this time Dr. Mark Whitney, and Leslie Merry of the Miracosta Community College Children's Center. They were invaluable in their parent education when we were so devastated, their superhuman efforts to assist us in keeping Maisie safe through the assessment process, and the excruciating placement process in the four branches of services. We also thank the E.F.R.C., (the Exceptional Family Resource Center) and representative Ellen LeGarre for her parent training with their parent education pamphlets and phone calls when we were absolutely destroyed emotionally with the loss of Maisie's future. Merryn Affleck of the Autism Society of America North County Chapter was also extremely helpful in parent education and support. These were our first Storm Angelique Angels!

The assessment or evaluation at Children's Hospital Developmental Evaluation Unit was our first attempt to get help from the "private medical branch" of our services. Other parents also informed us we needed to seek "educational assessments" from our local school district of Carlsbad the "educational branch" of our services. We also had to seek "State assessments" from what was called the Regional Center, the "public medical branch" of our potential services. Getting assessments from all the different areas is an aggravating process but great once navigated.

The last branch was "Home branch'. We define this as including home environment and parent knowledge facilitating and encouraging optimum neuron development. Hopefully the parent will also get support services so they can cope with their grief over their loss, develop new parenting skills, and be emotionally available to treat their child. If you grow and treat all four branches of the needs of Autism simultaneously you MAY get some, even excellent results. We immediately applied to each appropriate branch for their different services and information. Every branch was severely impacted and we were told from every person in every branch to wait wait wait. We wanted the opportunity for "excellent" results. We stayed busy seeking help.

We were able to get a second opinion, or confirming diagnosis on March 25, 2001 from a Regional Center Dr. Lynn Gregory that Maisie was indeed Autistic, a 5 on a 1-10 spectrum. Dr. Gregory's forthright discussion further made us resolve to a life of super neuron development no matter what. Dr. Gregory clearly demonstrated to us where Maisie had severe neural gaps in her short term and long-term memory, and that her behavior was often due to discomfort. We then realized that Maisie was BRAIN DAMAGED and NOT developing normally and that a great deal would have to be learned to help her. No one knows why Autism happens to children, or how to keep it from happening to someone else. We will never forget the day it was made clear that Maisie would not be growing up like everyone else, the day everything changed for us forever. It was possible that Maisie-Storm may not grow up at all, and if she would it would be up to her parents to make it possible.

Shortly after this assessment process Maisie was admitted to an ABA classroom in April 2001. Thanks to the regional educational placement in this local Applied Behavioral Analysis Program, Maisie is now integrating into typical educational settings in our local Carlsbad School District. Maisie is very committed to independence, learning like crazy even though her sensory nervous system cause her great physical pain and discomfort much of the time.

All Autism services are impacted at this time. There a terrible shortage of services at a time needs are rising and the truth is as a society we are losing the neuron development of a very amazing, hardworking group of children. This is our general explanation of which services are from where

"Home Branch": Parent empowerment-Success vs. subsistence- Getting the Diagnosis, Getting Assessments from the different branches of services-the hard part. Getting your child placed, Getting knowledge to manage the task.
As described, just getting the diagnosis is devastating but the truth is, knowing what you are dealing with is the first step in getting help with it. We have included a separate area on taking the steps, helping your child and yourself, and developing coping skills for the parent as well as support systems. Further detailed information is being prepared for purchase at parent's request.

Our Private insurance, the "private medical branch" of our potential services.
We have been very fortunate to receive some great assistance from
our private insurance once we got past the assessment process. Children's Hospital was so impacted besides our first diagnosis they were not able to help us much medically, with the exception of our awesome Neurologist Dr. Bookasara who has performed E.E.G.s studying Maisie's brain.
Our best services and training to foster independence were received from Dr. Nicholas VanDen Heever an Occupational Therapist at Tri City Hospital during his employment there. Dr. VanDen Heever taught us a great deal about Sensory Integration, and the problems with Maisie's Sensory and Vestibular systems. How her nerves worked and how to desensitize and help her learn to deal in otherwise impossible environments physically was a major contribution by Dr. VanDen Heever which is called "Occupational Therapy". Maisie's medical Speech Therapy services have also worked wonders with her. We have had times when all Occupational and Speech therapy services dried up, such as recently. Right now Maisie has no O.T. or Speech medical services but we are again on waiting lists and wading through the insurance referral process. More will be added later about our current private medical services in the details of that area. Further Information about Sensory Integration may be obtained in the book "The Out of Sync Child" by.

Regional Center, the "public medical branch" of our potential services.
The State Regional Center has been extremely helpful in fostering independence. Again although the assessment phase is brutal and slow, we received a great deal of instruction and help in learning to handle, care for and treat Maisie's Autism through the Regional Center Services. The support of Maisie's case worker and educational consultants has been great. They promote further neuron development and teach us how to cope and promote it in Maisie. One program Regional Center helped our family to receive that was particularly helpful was P.R.T. or Pivotal Response Training with Dr. Sara Turner. This teaches parents and siblings the very best ways to facilitate neuron development for children in their daily lives, and handle their additional health and safety issues untrained parents find unmanageable. It also allows parents to be more successful in supporting professionals in the other programs the kids receive. More will be added in the Regional Center: "Public Medical Branch" Helping you help yourself!! Section.

"Educational branch" of our potential services. The World Famous Carlsbad School District is becoming ProActive and needs their own the Applied Behavioral Analysis Program. ABA's ARE A BARGAIN!!!
At first we were required to go outside our local school district for educational services. Carlsbad School District had no appropriate preschool program for Maisie at the time of her diagnosis. Fortunately despite the lack of services for Autistic preschoolers at that time in our local area, Carlsbad was one district forward thinking enough to be one of 14 districts in a consortium of services. Because of this Maisie was placed in an optimum environment for Neuron development. We were fortunate at that time to find a regional placement that was a school delivered Applied Behavior Analysis program.
Because of this ABA placement at the optimal time of maximum neuron development, Maisie was able to return to the Carlsbad School District and be placed in a typical Kindergarten setting with assistance, as well as Special Education Services. We are integrating Maisie into a typical Kindergarten Summer school class in Summer 2003. Our focus is to continue to foster independence in her. We continue to make, monitor, and meet her educational goals.
New employees in the Carlsbad Special Education Department have brought expertise, innovation, and fresh ideas that are working in our child which as why we are supporting Carlsbad School Districts research into the effectiveness of Applied Behavioral Analysis Programs. Thanks to strong united team efforts between teachers, administrators, Dr.'s and many specialists in our community we are becoming more successful all the time.
We strongly support Applied Behavioral Analysis Programs, because they are the most cost effective way to impact neuron development and foster independence in Autistic children, who are treatable in appropriate programs. It is necessary that we have early intervention and optimum cost effective treatment at maximum time of neuron development in Autistic students in the Carlsbad School District.