How would you feel if your two-year-old child was diagnosed as autistic and mentally retarded? That he would go into his room and never come out, and would be institutionalized by age seventeen? This was the grim life sentence handed down to Lori and Jim Cairns regarding their son, JR. This diagnosis was made in 1996 – when little was known about autism, governments offered few helpful resources, and hope for recovery was disregarded as a myth, an urban legend. Today many people still dismiss...
