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COLUMBIA - In an ongoing look at autism, get a view of being a parent with a young autistic child.
It isn't an easy job.
"If we are out to dinner, and our son is behaving a certain way, it's not cause he is a bad kid or we don't know how to raise our child. We have spent hundreds of hours working with our child to understand as best we can, to live, work, eat and play together," explained Tim Miles.
The Miles family lives in Columbia with their son who has autism. A typical three year old should be able to speak in full sentences and be somewhat potty trained. But a three year old with autism has a hard time meeting those milestones. But there are ways to combat autism and Will Miles' family is doing just that. Therapy helps him find his place in the world. He works with a therapist at home four hours a week to help combat his moderate autism.
"He just looks at the world so differently. The stuff we take for granted. The stuff that is the most fascinating to him. If we just stopped in our day we realize it is pretty fascinating too," said Tim.
After Will started developing differently, his mom used the Internet to look up his developmental behavior. Diedre says she just knew his diagnosis.
"I read you might look around your floor and find trucks and cars are turned over and your child focuses on spinning the wheels than he does pushing them around. And I came out of the computer room and looked around our living room. And all the cars and trucks were turned over. And I just told Tim that I knew. I knew what was wrong with Will," she said.
Doctors diagnosed Will at 14 months. It's still a difficult diagnosis for Tim.
"I'm still not convinced. I still think I'm going to walk into his crib one morning and he is going to say, 'Hi Dadda love you.' Doctors tell you. He is your kid. We didn't do anything wrong. He is a sweet good boy. So we don't celebrate like other kids do, we celebrate other stuff," he said.
Will is on a gluten, casein-free diet to help with his autism. Tim and Deidre continue with early intervention to help work on Will's sensory and social behavior. They hope that hard work is a way towards an answer for their son.
"I want him. I want him to be able to tell his mom that he loves her," Tim said. "It's more than a full time job, it is a hundred hour a week job. And she does it without fail. There is nothing more important to her than that kid, and there is nothing more important to him than her. But he can't say it. It's hard."
"I want him to go to a birthday party and not scream and cry when they say happy birthday and want to blow out the candles," Diedre said. "And be interested in his birthday presents. I love Will's quirks. I love that he is obsessed with automatic doors. We make fun little games of all these things. I'm ok with Will not being like every other child. I would love to have a conversation with him. I would love for him to say, 'Mom I want a turkey sandwich today.' I want him to notice what is around him. I want him to be able to say, 'I love you,' to me to his grandparents to his Dad, give us kisses and hugs. That is what I want more than anything."
Click on the KOMU.com extras to watch Will's therapy session online along with behind the scenes stories from the Combating Autism from Within blog. Also see other web extra video including a behind the scenes video of what it took to put this story together.
Reported by: Ashley Reynolds
Posted by: Jen Reeves
Published: Tuesday, December 4, 2007 at 1:23 AM
Last Updated: Thursday, December 6, 2007 at 11:23 PM |
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