There is no better way to demonstrate the desperate need of children with autism in Edmonton than by hearing a parent’s story.
We are the proud parents of a delightful seven year old boy with Autism Spectrum Disorder. To say that our son is the centre of our universe is an understatement—we love him dearly!! While every parent wants what is best for their child and worries about what the future holds—for us it is more of an all consuming obsession. For us, the question is not “what will he be when he grows up?” but “how will he be when he grows up?”
You see, there are many things our son cannot do:
- He cannot speak. He has an underlying condition in which his brain does not communicate properly with the nerves and muscles necessary to produce speech.
- He cannot understand most of what others mean when they speak to him. He functions at the two to three year old level with his verbal comprehension skills.
- He cannot understand when it is safe to cross the road—and when it is not.
- He cannot dress, brush his teeth, feed or toilet himself due to motor planning issues.
- He cannot ride a bike, swim or play team sports.
- He cannot print.
- He cannot sit still in a restaurant, movie theatre or waiting room.
- He cannot tolerate shopping excursions of any sort unless he is sitting in the shopping cart (this is “inconvenient” to say the least considering he is 4.5 feet tall!).
- He cannot stand eating any fruits, vegetables and most meats.
Services for children with autism in Edmonton are overburdened, under funded and most importantly understaffed. While our son has been receiving specialized services since he was three and a half we have had to endure lengthy waiting periods and staff shortages at every turn. Early intervention has been vital to his treatment—but we faced a six month waiting list just to get his autism diagnosis.
I cannot state it strongly enough—we cannot cure autism but treatment works!!
He has been receiving services from Children's Autism Services of Edmonton for the past two years and his progress has been nothing short of amazing! His unbreakable spirit and desire to communicate is truly inspirational.
With intensive speech and language therapy intervention our son can now communicate through a combination of Sign Language, pictures, gestures, Speech Generating Device and sounds. He can make the sounds of some letters and can now say a few words like “Dada” and “up” with reasonable clarity. His progress is slow but steady.
With intensive occupational therapy intervention, he is partially toilet trained. He can put his own shoes on, pull up his own pants and zipper his coat. He can draw a circle and a square and can almost print his own name. He can ride a bike (with training wheels) and can play catch with his friends. He can eat certain vegetable soups, eat most dried fruits and loves French fries, hotdogs and chicken nuggets.
We—the autism community—desperately need a treatment centre in Edmonton. Our hope is that it will attract the Speech and Occupational Therapists, as well as Child Support Workers that are critical for the success of our children. Staffing has been difficult over the past 10 months. Our son cannot wait.
Thank you for helping to bring much needed hope to our families!
Linda Saltibus
