Three of a Kind

Three of a Kind

Meet Caleb, Aaron and Joel from Indianapolis, IN. Caleb age 6 is a mighty miniature ball of energy. He loves jumping, climbing anything and everything, and swinging from his trapeze. Caleb is playful and silly making anything and everything into a game. He loves to play chase and tickle games and dance to his favorite Dora Rocks video.  He is quite bright knowing all his letters, sounds, colors, shapes, numbers and can label 1000s of items. His receptive language is amazing while his expressive language is still limited to one and two words at a time. Caleb was diagnosed with ASD at 30 months after a regression where he lost all language. Prior to regression he was considered advanced verbally. He was referred for genetic testing with results being Interstitial Dup15Q Syndrome.

Aaron age 4.5 is my hyper aware, sneaky, mischievous, attention seeking, frustrating, serious, funny boy. He loves to spin and to spin everything. He loves to play with all things tiny, carrying his "fiddlies" in his hand, shoved in pockets or in little containers.  He can sort anything and is my helper picking up. Physical activities are hard for him as he tires quickly and lacks coordination. He has severe hypermobility in his joints with very low tone. He met early milestones but around 9 months began to struggle. He crawled for almost a year before walking at 23 months. He is just beginning to regularly mimic words. His receptive language is good yet there’s a significant processing delay. He struggles with anxiety also. At 14 months old, we discovered Aaron shared the Interstitial Dup15Q diagnosis with his brother. At age 2 he was diagnosed with ASD.

Joel age 34 months is a bundle of pure joy. We found out within months of his brothers diagnosis that he was on the way. So we knew we had a 50/50 chance of Dup15Q. At 12 weeks old, his diagnosis was confirmed. Much to our delight, he is minimally effected. He has mild developmental delays. He says simple sentences, sings constantly, is very social and is quite the copycat. Although we see some autistic traits, he is considered too social and verbal to meet diagnostic criteria.

While in most cases Dup15Q Syndrome is not inherited that’s not our scenario. Interstitial Dup15Q Syndromes can be passed from a mother who has the duplication herself which is the case with my boy’s birth mom. We just had a stoke of luck and adopted not one but 3 super duper brothers.