When Jason reached school age, professionals were still telling Joyce that their son was fine. "Because Jason has no visible signs that he's developmentally delayed," his mother explains, "people often have high expectations of him. For example, when Jason went to the local elementary school and didn't do well, his teachers thought he was lazy. One day I walked into Jason's class and found him sitting in a corner. The teacher had simply put him aside and left him there."

Angered that her son's self-esteem was suffering, Joyce decided to move him to New Hope, a school for children with developmental disabilities.It didn't take long for Jason's self-esteem to improve. At New Hope hefelt like he belonged. He wasn't picked on and made fun of. "He felt good about himself there," his mother says. "When the government closed New Hope School, Jason had to go back to the regular junior high school. It was a disaster. His self-esteem dropped. He felt lonely and excluded. He was without an aide and left to his own devices."

It wasn't until Jason was 18 and undergoing a medical assessment that the Holmgren's suspicions were finally confirmed. "We and another trained medical professional believe that the vaccination caused his problems,"Joyce said. "An EEG showed that the front lobe of his brain, the part responsible for sending and receiving messages and for memory, had been damaged. So the signals moving in his brain are impaired, and always will be. It was a bit of a relief for Jason when we told him. But the damage to his self-esteem was already done. For too many years in school he'd had people telling him he was just lazy and stupid."

Despite the many obstacles in his path, Jason graduated from high school. For the past seven years, he's been working full-time at Habitat, a vocational training centre operated by the St. Paul Abilities Network (SPAN), where he does laundry and yardwork. Every weekday morning, his parents drive him into town. "The people at Habitat are wonderful with him," his mother says. "They're like a family to us."

Jason is now 26 years old. He is a big and kind-hearted man who gets along well with others. Although he continues to live at home, he has learned necessary life skills. He does his own laundry, keeps his room clean, pays rent, and does his own banking.

Jason bowls one night a week in the SPAN bowling league. Other nights and weekends he spends time watching television and movies. "Jason is also very gifted with his hands," Joyce says. "He loves to put together model cars and airplanes and anything else that requires assembling. He enjoys fixing things, and he loves working with computers. One day, he plans to go to college and learn how to program them."

The Holmgrens have always expected a lot from their three children,and from Jason in particular. "If we have high expectations," Joyce says,"then he will learn better and he will gain some confidence. It may take him longer to get where he wants to be, but we still have hope that he will get there on his own if we keep encouraging him."

Since writing this story Jason started a college program in Computer Technology in September 2002 at Lakeland College, Lloydminster. Jason has been keenly interested in computer for several years. With the support of PDD for an aide and the excellent cooperation of Lakeland College he has started to achieve a major dream of his for a career working with computers.