My daughter Ava was diagnosed with autism in June 2007, when she was two-and-a-half years old. By the time we received the diagnosis, it was somewhat of a relief. She had no language, and she didn’t point or wave “bye, bye.” Ava was crying for hours and hours throughout the day because she couldn’t tell us what she wanted, what she didn’t want, or if she was hurting. It was awful. She wasn’t interacting with her sisters, and every day she seemed to be slipping further away. When the developmental pediatrician said, “Well, she definitely has autism,” I thought, okay, now we can do something about it.