Award-winning singer Toni Braxton just revealed that her youngest son who was diagnosed as autistic at age two, has been cured of the condition.
In a recent sit down with “Access Hollywood,” she shared that now, her youngest son Diezel, who is 13-years-old, is no longer on the autism spectrum.
“My youngest son— everyone knows— my son Diezel suffers from—or I should say suffered from Autism,” explains Braxton. “I am one of the lucky parents. Early diagnosis changes everything. I will tell you this. I will shout it from the rooftops. My son Diezel is off the spectrum. Off the spectrum being autistic. Susan Wright, who unfortunately just passed from Autism Speaks, when she found out about my son and I she called me immediately and said ‘Get him in this program. Do this, do that.’ She’s been an advocate in helping me so much. I miss her already. I mean, I can’t believe she’s gone.”
“No signs of autism. He’s our social butterfly. He’s the one who plays with friends and hangs out all the time. Very, very fortunate. And I don’t like to think there’s anything wrong with our babies. I just think they learn differently.”
Autism, or, more formally, autism-spectrum disorder, is a condition where an individual struggles to engage in two-way communication, especially in social situations. While the severity and precise symptoms of autism can vary (that is why it is referred to as a spectrum), problems understanding another person’s intentions and emotions are a central feature. People with autism may also find it challenging to engage in small talk, or even to talk at all. Other symptoms of autism include a need for a particular routine, or a hyperfocus on a narrow group of interests, but the difficulty in social communication is often the most impairing.
There is no “cure” for autism, and the cause may come down to hundreds of interacting factors, but we do know it is critical for people with autism to get the earliest possible diagnosis and obtain access to appropriate educational, medical and therapeutic resources.
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While autism is a challenge for many people and their families, it seems that African-American children and other children of color are among the worst-affected. One of the main reasons being late diagnosis.
African-American children are just not getting a diagnosis of autism as quickly as their white counterparts. According to the CDC, while many children are diagnosed with autism at around 4 years old, researchers have determined that African-American children may be diagnosed as much as 18 to 24 months later.
One may think that this doesn’t sound like much of a delay; however, it is a critical delay. The first two years are a crucial stage in brain development where children are learning many of their basic social and language skills, such as…
…engaging in conversations and play.
The 48-year-old Braxton fell pregnant with her then-boyfriend, (now ex-husband) Keri Lewis’ child before they married in April 2001 and decided to terminate the baby as she was taking Accutane, a prescription acne treatment which can have serious side-effects for unborn babies.
And while Toni tells Entertainment Tonight ‘I am more ashamed of myself for doing that’, in a later interview, she admitted in her autobiography that she would have had the abortion anyway. But she was left devastated when Deizel was diagnosed with autism and believed she was being punished for terminating her pregnancy.
Since then she says she has let that go and “moved on” to loving her son, God and doing her best to be a great mother, daughter and sister.
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