His name is Wellson. He is 5 years old. Wellson is globally delayed. We noticed he was delayed very young. He wasn’t rolling over or crawling on time. He didn’t crawl until over one year old. He sat up for the first time at a year and a half.

He quickly became an expert at crawling and continued to crawl until he was 3 years old. He stood for the first time on his own at 3 years old and shortly after that he started to walk with the help of a walker. He is now fully able to walk and he can even run! He is still globally delayed but making rapid progress! He can’t speak fluently although he’s just begun using 3 word sentences. “I see you!” “I love you” “Hi mommy/daddy”. He knows several colors, basically every animal noise and can count to 10 with help! These little milestones are HUGE!

Wells has been in therapy since 8 months old. Speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and behavioral therapy. He does have severe behavioral issues. He can get upset and lash out at others often, throws things etc. These behavioral issues tend to come in waves. Wells had an MRI and everything was perfect. He had an EEG and no signs of seizures, but there is a 50% chance overtime he may develop seizures along with everybody with the GRIA3 genetic mutation.

He feels all of his emotions very highly! If he’s happy he’s ecstatic, if he’s mad he’s furious. Sleep issues have also occurred. There are times he will be awake for 24 hours with no signs of being sleepy. He does have autistic traits such as hand flapping, sensory issues, etc. We were thankful to get genetic testing done so we could finally have true answers. Although these genetic mutations are extremely rare I’m blessed to have other families to share our story with. If you have any specific questions please ask!