For the first two years of his life, Allen seemed to be developing like most other infants. He learned to sit up, made normal eye contact and was interested in toys and everything around him.

But not long after his second birthday, the director of Allen’s early learning program told Maria there was something wrong with her son’s hearing. He wouldn’t respond when his name was called and didn’t flinch when the teacher clapped behind him.

Many medical tests later, Allen was diagnosed not with a hearing problem but with Pervasive Developmental Disorder/mild Autism.

At home in New York, Allen couldn’t get all the help he needed. While on the waiting list for the only appropriate school in the area, Allen attended public school and received private therapy at home after school. But Allen was making little headway and his differences and difficulties were becoming more pronounced.

That’s when the family learned about NECC through one of Allen’s home therapists who had done her master’s degree training there. “The therapist was very excited about NECC. She told me I was going to love it," Maria remembers. “It’s a true home, she told me, and she was right.”

Allen’s family loved NECC at first sight. “We immediately got the feeling that this was a place where Allen would be cherished and educated,” says Maria. The family lives several hours from NECC but travel is easy to NECC and they make regular trips with Allen back home. Allen spends time with his 16-year old sister, and loves playing with the family dog. Regular and reliable contacts with Allen’s teachers insure the family is well informed about how he is doing.

Since bringing Allen to NECC, his family has been extremely supportive. The family buys holiday gifts and Halloween candy goodie bags for the students. “There are 27 people who take care of Allen,” Maria says. “They feel like extended family.” In addition to these gifts the family has made generous donations. They held an extremely successful dinner party and silent auction in New York City last fall – more than $13,000 was raised to help build a planned indoor swimming pool at NECC. In addition, the family donated another $10,000 to the project. “Allen loves the water and I bet many of his classmates do too,” Maria says, noting that the pool will give students the opportunity to swim all year round. Maria’s family sees their contributions to NECC as simply a good way to take care of the extended family.

“I don’t feel like we’re doing anything special at all,” she says. “Just giving back to a place that has given us and our son so much.”