“Missing Pieces” by Mark Leland (April 6, 2008) is a song depicting his first reaction when he

first received the autism diagnosis. In many ways the diagnosis can change your life. You are never

prepared for a child that is different, but in a crazy way you are happy. Happy in a way that you are

blessed with such a gift in the form of your child; and thank God everyday that he is healthy in other

ways. The diagnosis is just the beginning of a journey that you have now embarked on. You see your

child start to change. First change is the Speech, this is where they say words before and then goes back

to babbling. This is known as Speech Regression, that is only associated with Autism. Often times you

try to figure out what could have caused your child to be different. And so often you pray that your

child could speak or make eye contact or even socialize like normal children. However, in cases like

these this is where we need to have faith and trust that God will deliver.

Autism does not affect a certain kind of people, but it affects anybody. As parents our job is to

work with the physicians and see if we can find the missing pieces to bring them close to normality.

This diagnosis can change your life drastically, in my experience I have not fully grasp how to deal

with my child , but it is a working progress. That with God we can overcome.