Please Share Your Story of Success on the Autism Spectrum
Quite a few of the poll respondents also said that they'd like more positive "success" stories regarding individuals with autism.
Over the past months, I've asked readers for success stories - but haven't been too successful in getting positive conversations going. In fact, I find that my blog explodes with comments when I write about potential causes, treatments, and controversies - and goes silent when I ask for positive and/or success stores.
Occasionally, I've brought up success stories regarding my own son, Tom - and of course I'm proud to do so - but it's really much more important to hear your stories. In fact, it would be wonderful to create an archive of wonderful stories about successful children, teens and adults with autism diagnoses.
With that in mind - please take a look at few "success on the autism spectrum" stories that I've received. As you'll see, these are not extraordinary tales of outstanding achievement - but they are successes worth celebrating.
Can you relate? If so, please - PLEASE - share your success story with About.com readers. And let me know, too, if you feel comfortable in sharing a photo. I'd be glad to turn your story into an article like those below - so that it can be permanently available to visitors to the site. Please note, too, that while these happen to be stories about children submitted by parents, I would be thrilled to include stories about teens and adults - submitted by self-advocates, teachers, parents, lovers, siblings, grandparents... well, you get the drift.
Breakthrough on the Playground
Having a child on the autism spectrum heightens our appreciation for small triumphs. As our kids learn to use the toilet, speak first words, make friends or acheive their goals, we need to share and celebrate. Here's one inspiring story from Donna Cooper, mother of Jonathan, age 5.
A Little Girl with Autism Makes it to the "Mainstream"
Glen Stevens of St. Catharines in Ontario, Canada is a regular contributor to the About.com Autism Forum. Here is a proud Dad's story of how Glen's daughter, Shadowe-Lyn, fought her way from "special needs" to the regular classroom.
Autism at Church: A Success Story Can a child with an autism spectrum diagnosis take an active role in Mass? With support, practice and dedication - absolutely!
A Boy With Autism Wins Silver in Taekwondo Match Lenny Hoover was diagnosed with autism at age two. Today, he's mainstreamed -- and a Taekwondo competitor.
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WITH HOPE AND ACTION, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE – A story of four extraordinary children who overcame the odds of Autism.
By, Erin Felsen
Four children stricken with a life-altering, heartbreaking diagnosis of Autism overcame the odds and pushed away the hand they were dealt because of the internal drive they possessed to bring something special to this world. For Nick, Ruffin, Janna and Brett, nothing came easy. Simple things that “normal” children often take for granted like speaking, making eye contact, and smiling were a constant struggle for these brilliant four. The ability to look their parents in the eye, smile and say “I love you” rarely or never occurred. Today these strong and courageous kids have walked down a long, winding, unknown path and come out on the other side, strong, successful and recovered!
When first diagnosed, life for the parents and families of these four children began to spiral downhill rapidly. Between having to reconcile in their minds the fact that their child may never live a “normal functioning” life, and having to grasp what Autism really is and what the steps would be towards treatment, the road to recovery seemed endless. At age 4 Nick, one of the four amazing children, was diagnosed with Autism. His mother was told by a doctor to “Take him home and make him comfortable. Put him in a special education class in a public school. Don’t get too stressed out about anything because there was not much that she could do.” After receiving news of that magnitude, life seemed hopeless and Nick’s ability to lead a normal, happy life seemed impossible. After turning down several paths, Nick’s mother found Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh, founder of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, Inc. (CARD), who told Nick’s mother and family that recovery is possible, and he would recover and be able to attend a “regular” kindergarten class. Nick, after 5 years of an average of 26 hours a week CARD therapy, was functioning at the typical level of any other 9 year old. Today Nick has exceeded everyone’s expectations for a child recovered from Autism. He has plans of attending a 4 year university, holds a job working on a feature length film, and is an accomplished musician. According to Nick, if it was not for the treatment he received for five years, he would not have had the courage to pick up the guitar at 14 years old and learn to play.
Ruffin, another of the four exemplary kids, fought his battle from age 3 on with a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). Ruffin’s mother, much like Nick’s mom, was told that Ruffin’s future looked bleak. “Ruffin would never be employed…he would not know that his mother loved him, nor would he love her. He would not be likely to get married, and if his mother had any money at all she should probably invest it because it would be needed for a lifetime of care for her son.” At the age of 3 years 7 months Ruffin began intensive CARD therapy for an average of 27.3 hours a week for two and a half years. At first, Ruffin was unable to communicate with his mother, and displayed repetitive motions like hand flapping and other repetitive motions. He was unable to look her in the eye and had no recognition of her presence in his room. By the end of CARD therapy, Ruffin was functioning as a normal child his age and today has also surpassed any expectations his parents or therapists had for him. Ruffin has been invited to apply to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in their engineering department, is a member of the National Honor Society at his high school, is the sound designer and sound-board operator for his school’s spring musical, and in his free time studies Chinese.
Janna and Brett, the other two children who have proven that recovery is possible are also leading exemplary lives. Both were diagnosed with Autism around the age of two and a half, and both families were told there was no hope and that they should just be “put in an institution or home.” The parents of these two brave children did not give up hope and were driven to provide their kids with a shot at a “normal” life. Both Janna and Brett received intensive CARD Therapy for approximately 30 hours a week for three to five years. Before therapy both children had limited or no eye contact, and were completely unable to speak. Today they both are exceptional members of society; Janna is considering attending a State University, is an accomplished artist specializing in watercolors and drawings, and participates in the Color Guard, in which her team finished 4th in their region. Brett is a junior in high school, has an “A” average, is a distance runner and enjoys weightlifting, and plans to attend law school after graduating from a four year university.
These four extraordinary children have not only shown to the world that their determination and hard work with therapists and their parents have paved the way to a normal life, but with hope and action all things are possible. Their voices, when speaking about the bumpy, uncertain roads they travelled down, stands for all children who have been diagnosed with Autism and feel they will never have the ability to have friends, or love their parents, or be productive in society. They saw past the dark cloud of their diagnosis and have developed into an accomplished musician making beautiful music, an awe-inspiring artist who’s art is destine to be featured in a museum, an engineer who may one day revolutionize his field, and a straight-A student who may be the next great lawyer. All four children were featured in the DVD Documentary “RECOVERED- Journeys Through the Autism Spectrum and Back,” an inspiring documentary following the paths of these four children towards the light at the end of the dark, uncertain tunnel of their diagnosis. These kids are living proof that one must not give up when staring adversity or a set back in the face; that there is always hope and a course of action that can be taken, you just can’t give up.
I saw this documentary on these children! It was amazing.
I recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about autism, ABA therapy, and how recovery.
http://www.recoveredautism.com/buy.asp
I’m sorry to read that you’re not having many people write in about successes. Perhaps by “success” some feel that that means a life without problems.
My son’s had the diagnoses of PDD, then Asperger’s. He’s now in his early 20’s, lives independently, finds his own apartments, owns a truck, has completed two college certificates and is now at university working on a Computer Science degree. Does this mean he has no challenges? No. But life goes smoothly for very few people. The goal is to continue to acquire the skills needed to be as independent and fulfilled as possible. When I think of my son at age 3 and where he is 20 years later, there is a world of difference. It is possible.
What is success?
I’m not sure we can easily define success, since it varies by the level of functionality and personal potential.
I certainly believe I have done well enough, but for some students “success” is simply the ability to live and function independently. In my case, being content within my limits is success.
My daughter Heather was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome just shy of her 13th birthday. We were told she’d probably not graduate high school,be heavily medicated the rest of her life and she’d probably need to be instituitionalized. She is now 21 and has functioning recovery of her autism.
Her charactoristics include;ADHD, 40 seizure like tics per day, SPD (Sensory Processing Dysfunction,)Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and many severe environmental and food allergies.
Her road to functionaing recovery included occupational therapy for her SPD, CranioSacral Therapy, Biomedical Therapy,and mental health supports. No prescription medication either for the ADHD or for the depression was helpful in fact most made it worse.
She now maintains her functioning recovery with daily self stimulating supports taught by her occupational therapist as well as ongoing CranioSacral Therapy.
Heather graduated from high school in 2005, never having qualified for special education. Four years of occupational supports helped her obtain her drivers license and she completed a secondary education program and now works 25 hours a week. We are still working on independent living, but she has saved and budgeted enough to make that a successful goal by the end of this year
We have our little girl back and It is and was worth every headache, heartache, struggle, setback financially and emotionally.
Tami Goldstein
To define success. This would mean age typical abilities and behaviors, and how debilitating these are to that person, and how they can progress.
When my son was born, while still in the hospital, you could just tell something wasn’t right. The nurses ket bringing me back my screaming kid from the nursery saying they just couldn’t comfort this child. Who knew this was the first of many “come and get your kid” calls I’d be getting.
As an infant there was always ‘things’, but nothing that hit me like a brick other than he never slept. However as he became older and able to do more, he was doing less of what he should had and the behavior was like being hit with a brick. Autism is often defined as to how debilitating it is to that child or person, and at age 3, within his 8 page diagnosis it states “debilitating every minute of the day.” And it was. He was DX’d severe autism, infantile onset, non verbal. He had two known words but those words were never used in context. His behaviors were that I’ve never seen in another child, top it off with an incredibly tired mom since my kid literally hardly slept.
My son started all interventions, school and private at age 3. The wave at the time was ABA, along with them revising their certifying due to bad press and reports, so I did not choose that. I chose O.T and speech, privately, and RDI along with the little he got from school. I seen nothing, notta for a whole year. It seemed as if it was over night. My son woke up one day potty trained, at about the age of 4.5. He also began to speak, but over that year I demanded he at least attempt to say sounds of words, and so on. He had a horrible stutter when he began talking, which for a phrase repeater, this was a loooong process and you could not interrupt him or he’d start all over on this dreadful speaking task. It took about a year or two and my son hardly stutters now. One of his worse behaviors was biting all ahrd objects and smelling everything. First, he still get’s sick a lot due to this. Second, the biting was a huge issue. At age two, he was literally breaking off his teeth from biting, anything. He’d bite a chair leg if nothing else was around that was hard. By the time he was 3, he had broken off 3 of his top teeth, which sort of made sense for him, he did every thing in three’s.
Success is my son is verbal and can hold a conversation, more so of his own topic but much of his language is appropriate and slightly delayed in both receptive and expressive. He does not bite things any more. With various medications, he sleeps most every night all night. Another medication stopped the night time wetting. There are many things my son can do, but wont since he cant quite see the point or the reasons why. He certainly does have comprehension, writing and reading issues academically. He still has many autism behaviors and it is noticeable that he has autism.
I see al his success, and I hope my son can see it too. He’s worked very hard to be where he is today. But success is on- going. We’re not finished yet!
Noah was not a cuddly baby and we thought he was very self sufficient and independent, doing much on his own. But, steadily, sensory problems set in with endless meltdowns, together with the lack of eye contact or interaction. By three an experienced day care teacher alerted us to his autistic tendences and Early Intervention. Noah was always a talker, just with echolalia in well-timed, perfectly mimicked lines from Thomas the Tank Engine characters. Therapies gave him pragmatic speech, if toneless at first, and models for interaction with other people besides his parents. He got over his tactile defensiveness through occupational therapy, and learned to run purposefully. Always a very serious intelligent boy, he was very hard on himself, and a form of frustration eluded all of our efforts–anger would erupt out of nowhere and he would lash out at other children in daycare and teachers. Despite three years of therapy, he not going to be allowed to attend regular kindergarten, though his cognitive skills were quite advanced at that point. He was diagnosed by a specialist with Asperger Syndrome, which has helped to focus his therapies. Without pressure, we made the hard decision to try medication. Within months, we met a new boy!! A boy with a sunny smile and a great sense of humor, with a nervous system more able to organize his senses, and moods darkened much less often by frustration and lashing out. At 10 he is in regular 5th grade with a 1:1 aide, as he has been since kindergarten. He struggles with math and subjects that do not interest him, but his interests are broader now: he is a passionate cartoonist, a dinosaur expert, addicted to computer games, fond of natural history, a proud cub scout, and desperate for the next volume of Captain Underpants. He is comforted by his 2 year old golden retriever from North Star, Lily. She is not yet a very specialized companion animal since her adults are developmentally challenged pack leaders, but Noah accepts her limitations and adores her–he is calmed by her very presence and softness. Life is rich and wonderful with our boy. Sure we are worried, frustrated, exhausted, but mostly that comes from dealing with the available services for older children, not with him. I think with his great team at school, and with some luck on the hormone front, he will be independent–we think a paleontologist or computer specialist but a friend who does horoscopes says he will use his latent theatrical skills to help others. He certainly will be a very good, funny guy to a few friends and his loving family.
I have 2 sons affected by autism and Aspergers syndrome respectively and my husband was diagnosed 5 years ago.
My eldest son attended a special independent school since he failed miserably in mainstream. He now at the age of 18 attends a mainstream college and is in a foundation year and will follow on to study media studies.
Please see link related to a TV piece in Ireland.
http://www.tv3.ie/ireland_am.php?video=1687
Thank you
Sarah Palin just gave an encoraging speech on what roll children with special needs will play the the McCain administration. She discussed everything From early diognosis to financially planning for there future. She seems very in touch with parents needs. If they are elected I think will will have a real friend and reformer in the White House.
When a parent of a child that doesn’t speak, or speaks minimally, that has absolutely no idea how to play with other children and is totally self-absorbed in his own world hears that a child has “recovered from autism”, that parent thinks to himself, that the “recovered” child was never really autistic and that the “recovered” child’s parent has no idea what real autism really is.
David – your comment is really very insightful, and it points out one of the biggest problems in the “autism world.” Right now, the “autism spectrum” is enormous, and encompasses people at every level of functioning and ability, with a wide range of symptoms and challenges.
As a result, families often feel that they have nothing in common with one another except a diagnosis! My SINCERE hope is that we will find a way to parse out these diagnoses in such a way that people will be better able to learn about appropriate treatments, expectations, supports, and programs for THEIR children – and not for ‘all people with autism spectrum diagnoses.’
Best,
Lisa (autism guide)
My son Zach turned 5 on July 1st and because of the laws here he couldn’t stay in the early childhood program. So we signed him up for kindergarten even though I felt he really wasn’t ready.(he didn’t have a very productive year last year. His new teacher just didn’t “get it” like his first teacher did.)Let me tell you I was scared! I prayed that there would be something he liked about school so he would want to go.
Sometimes prayers are answered. He has had such success the last 10 weeks. He is now writing his first name without help. He is playing in the gym with his classmates at PE even though it echos so much in there. He identifies himself as being a part of the class. He is mainstreamed with a full time facilitator. He is so focused some days that his facilitator doesn’t even need to repeat the teacher’s directions. He has eye contact and answers questions. half the time he sings and does actions to songs on his own at music class. He is beginning to read.
He has had all good behavior days so far. I am completely amazed each day. I have quit “waiting for the other shoe to drop”. I am completely enjoying each day and all of his many successes. I have only given you a few examples.
He is AWESOME. He has the best attitude and has taught me a lot more about hard work, attitude and never giving up than anyone else ever has.
Keep the faith. You never know when it will by your child’s time to shine. I didn’t expect him to have even half of the success he has had so far this school year. The Special Education department is completely floored by what a different child he is this year.
I don’t know what “success” is.
I didn’t lose my son after he was vaccinated. He’s always developed per his milestone. However, his speech is more scripted than conversational and he’s become more and more social by the day… with strangers that is.
I’ve always felt that his progress has always been part of his natural progression as a person. I really don’t think it can be attributed to anything I did that was “out of the ordinary”.
Most of the adults I’ve met who are on the spectrum feel that we (parents of auties born after the mid-90s) don’t give the little auties enough opportunities to figure things out on their own as we are always pushing one therapy after another on them.
Who knows. Maybe there’s something to that… especially when you’re a parent to a child who is considered high-functioning.
It sounds as if your son has lots of success. I don’t think you have to do things that others consider out of the ordinary to help your child to grow. It sounds like you have encouraged your child all along. To some people that would we extraordinary.
I say way to go.
This is to David, October 24, 2008, your comments are not accurate. There is no denying that my child, Heather now 21, has autism even though she has functioning recovery.
She made no eye contact, could not be touched, played next to children, but had no idea how to play with them or anyone else, rocked and stim many hours per day, 40 full body tics per day, any overstimulation even going to any new place could shut her down completely, Adhd, OCD and ODD. She still has many of the same charactoristics but has been taught how to be proactive with her supports so none sees the maladaptive behaviors in public.
This does not mean she really did not have sutism it means we found the right combination of supports to help her achieve her potential.
She will always have autism, but now no everyone knows when they meet her.
Network, go to supports groups in other areas, branch out and you may meet others just like Heather.
My son was mute – he can talk now though he talks slowly. My son lost all of his math skills in the second grade so that he could not add past 5 without counting on his fingers. Now he is studying engineering. In fourth grade, my son lost the ability to hold a pencil. Now he is fairly adept at drawing. In seventh grade, my son did not have enough concentration to look at his homework. Now he drives a car. Children half my son’s age used to run circles around him. In his senior year in high school he lettered in track. After taking a typing class, my son could not type one word per minute. Now he is able to type. Most of the improvements happened after puberty.
My son is still autistic. Nevertheless, if that is not success then what is.
I am a special needs assistant at beneavin college and have been with the same student for five years> He was diagnosed with aspergers last year and is going to be 17. He has gone from strength to strength and is doing very well in his leaving cert applied. He is part of a youth group and is part of the student council and his acheivements are numerous. We are about to put togther our work into a book. This is a successful story if I ever saw one