Oct 10, 2026 · 1 hr 25 min · 15 segments
Steve Gonyea shared the challenges of his son Dustin's late autism diagnosis, his own experience as a single dad, and the lack of services in rural New York. He detailed his and his wife's work as…
Cindy GelorminiHost
Well, were they saying that he was ADD or ADHD? Yeah, that's what they thought.
that's what they thought was ADHD and slash behaviors and paid more attention at home and that kind of stuff with things.
he would he'd line everything up typical the autism traits he'd line everything up he'd line up back then it was movies like bcr tapes and things like that you line them all up and lay them all over the floor you go in his room there'd be a hundred of them laying on the floor all lined up it was a lot of that kind of stuff it was um you know some weird things with the stemming he was with the hands he was twirling his hair so it would get a he literally would pull the hair right out of his head in one spot because he'd keep stemming and twirling it and and then folding his fingers back and forth um you know crossing them over and he actually caused some damage doing that stuff but It was all things that we found out later on are characteristics of autism.
But back then, like I said, they thought it was a behavior type thing and ADHD slash behavior.
But again, we had issues with school all the time because he'd be hiding under his desk when everybody else is sitting in a desk.
And again, even the special ed departments back then, they weren't really set up for kids like my son, Dustin.
Well, were they saying that he was ADD or ADHD? Yeah, that's what they thought.
that's what they thought was ADHD and slash behaviors and paid more attention at home and that kind of stuff with things.
he would he'd line everything up typical the autism traits he'd line everything up he'd line up back then it was movies like bcr tapes and things like that you line them all up and lay them all over the floor you go in his room there'd be a hundred of them laying on the floor all lined up it was a lot of that kind of stuff it was um you know some weird things with the stemming he was with the hands he was twirling his hair so it would get a he literally would pull the hair right out of his head in one spot because he'd keep stemming and twirling it and and then folding his fingers back and forth um you know crossing them over and he actually caused some damage doing that stuff but It was all things that we found out later on are characteristics of autism.
But back then, like I said, they thought it was a behavior type thing and ADHD slash behavior.
But again, we had issues with school all the time because he'd be hiding under his desk when everybody else is sitting in a desk.
And again, even the special ed departments back then, they weren't really set up for kids like my son, Dustin.
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