My name is Liam. I am
three-years-old. I'm scared that I'm gonna die before Liam can live
an independent
life.
I'm Corbyn Tyson. This is my wife Sarah. We've got three kids.
This is Max, Owen, and Audrey who thinks
she's Princess Elsa. I'm on a journey to find out what it means to be a good dad.
One of the heroes in my life right now is Liam.
He's three years old and was recently diagnosed with Autism
as well as verbal apraxia which prevents him from talking
You see, Liam's mom and dad are my long time friends
and when I started this project I knew I wanted to tell their story
Courtney and I were having a conversation the other day about some things that she wanted to
accomplish
and she said something like well I guess I'll just do this
and I was like no we don't just do things
right, that's not how this family operates. If you want something let's do it
I think a life well-lived is one where you just
are constantly pushing yourself forward
I'm a professor at Rock Valley College, it's a Community College
I'm working on my PhD. We're currently writing my dissertation
Courtney and I have been married since 2005 so nine years
this year Liam is our son he's gonna be four
this year and Molly is going to be two. Family is just everything
we knew that something could be off when he was around a year old
He was our first child, so we didn't know anything could be wrong
Then, around 18 months, he kind of started shutting down socially
Liam has a diagnosis of Autism
Autism Spectrum Disorder. There's a social element of
that where he is not sure about how to engage
socially with people that he also has a verbal apraxia which is
a motor planning disorder. It's a sort of disconnect between his brain
and his mouth so that means that he's right now,
more or less, non-verbal. He's unable to speak.
and so we're working very slowly to kind of build those abilities
we really started Liam's
adventure trying to figure out what was going on with him
literally right at the same time that molly was born
It is more common with families that have one child with autism to have another
child with autism
you know we don't know what the future holds for her exactly. I think that she's a
little bit
a little bit more complex in a way because I don't know that she fits a particular
kind of profile
We kind of think, oh, I've done this once before so now I'm
I'm "therapy dad expert" but you're not because it's an entirely different kid and
they have an entirely different set of things going on and you just have to start
again
I don't think it's my job to to force Liam
to be the kinda kid, the kind of person that I want him to be. It's
our job as parents, it's my job is his dad
to help him find who he is.
once my dad
I think for Matt and I to
really enable Liam
to be successful in life is to not let our fear get in the way
instead of being this sort of superhero
for their kids, I think that a good dad is someone who just
humbles themself in front of their kids and finds ways to reach to their kid
where they are
and say I see you and I love you. I'm scared that I'm gonna die before Liam can live
an independent life.
I think if I'm being honest
I'm most scared that Liam won't talk. I really want to hear his voice.
you know it's great that we
know him and we can kind of know what he wants
but that was getting to the point where he was really frustrated because he
didn't want us to read his mind. He wanted to be able to speak
and so now with this device, it makes him happy, like yeah, that's what I think
that's the voice and that's my voice. Liam's story is one of
struggle, but is also one
of success. Before his
diagnosis, we went to visit my family and my sister-in-law
rides horses and so we took Liam
to the barn where her horse was. He was really
engaged with the horse and was vocalizing and trying to use words
reaching out to pet the horse. we found
a place where we can take him and do speech therapy
as horse therapy. The sessions themselves they begin,
you know, from the minute he arrives and that process of putting on the helmet
putting on the belt and using images and then being safer on the horses and
going and getting on the horse
It kind of gives him that sense if being centered and ready to work
and then they start asking him to do tasks that require him to communicate
it can be really tiring for him. There are days that he shows up and he just doesn't
want to do it
what's incredible about Liam is that he always overcomes, right?
There's never been a moment where there's been something he needed
to accomplish that he didn't accomplish.
Did you have a good time? Yes or no? Yes.
Oh good! I am so proud of you. Every day,
getting up and struggling from morning until you go to bed at night, that's heroic.
Liam's my hero. I don't think we need action heroes
anymore you know we have kids like Liam! they could
they can show us how to walk through life
I think to help kids unlock who they are you have to realize
as a parent, as a dad it's really not about you
but to make it about the kid you have to be vulnerable
you have to be humble you have to let that stuff go
so you can make it about them
I think my job as a dad is to help and encourage my kids
to find their voice and unlock their potential. It's my job to get out of the way
and create an environment where they can discover and learn what it is
that they bring to the world. So here's the deal: I really want to hear from you
I want to know what challenges have you had to overcome as a dad
and what is your biggest fear? Are you like me and
you're afraid that you're going to screw things up or are you afraid of the unknown?
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