By the time I was decorating my 2.5-year-old son’s first picture-communication board with an “autism ribbon," we had been aware of his lack of speech for well over a year and a half. My delay in embarking on speech therapy for him wasn’t exactly denial—it wasn't like anyone said "This is Autism" and we refused to believe it. No one had brought up autism yet, and what little I'd heard about it just didn't seem to match my son. Yet.