During winter break in Matthew’s first-grade year, and without the support of the experts who were currently working with Matthew, Peter and I decided to try the miracle cure: Auditory Training.

“Did you see that girl on Oprah?” I asked Dr. Hoffman. “I don’t usually watch Oprah, but one day I flipped it on while I was folding the laundry. Anyway, through this amazing treatment, this girl went from autistic and functionally retarded to gifted.”

Brothers

“I wonder what it would be like to have a big brother?” my five-year-old son, Andy asked me. We were taking one of our walks while his older brother, Matthew, was at speech therapy. He wasn’t being reflective. He was being realistic.

Andy had become the big brother during an outing to the park two years before, when he was three and Matthew five.

A boy whom Andy had befriended that day approached Matthew. Matthew called the boy a rock head. Incensed, the boy confronted Andy.

“Your brother called me a rock head!” he protested.