I want to get three second! Come on!
Feliks doesn't react when he got four
because he's the world record holder.
-As a baby, as soon as
-we brought him home from the hospital,
I felt something was a little off.
-We took him to the pediatrician.
-We had his hearing checked.
-He was just hyper-focused on whatever he was doing.
-And once we got his attention, he wasn't very interested
in anything that we had to offer.
-It was just kinda like, "He's gonna get better.
-Okay, like, by the time he's gonna
be three, he's going to be fine."
It was my kinda big goal
-and hope and, you know, belief.
-Dang you, Feliks!
Look.
-We took him to the hospital,
-where we met with a child neurophysician,
-and he, at that time,
-formally diagnosed Max with autism.
-First thing I was thinking is...
-I don't know, it's just a...
-you kinda lost your... future, kind of thing.
-You had a beautiful...
"I'm going to do this with my child and do this and that."
And then, it's just kinda like, shut the door in front of you.
-I remember we were sitting at the edge of our bed,
and we were just hugging
each other, and we just both lost it.
We were just crying, and I think...
to me it felt like, "Let's cry
our hearts out now and get to work."
Hey Max, are you tired?
From that point on is when we started to look for answers.
-I kinda knew that there is a reason why this is in my life
-and this is my child.
And I cannot just...
give up.
-One day I just sat down and I was just kinda devastated.
-He doesn't look at me, he doesn't play with me.
-He is in his own world by himself.
-So I just did it together.
He lay down, I'd lay down.
He did this, I'd do this, and then just kinda...
not asking him anything.
"I'm here.
But, you know, when you're ready, I'm here with you."
-And then one day we were playing
-with this phone. "Hello, hello."
-Hello? -Hello?
-And he was holding my hand,
and then he was looking at Daddy.
It was kinda like, "Daddy you're not invited."
Zip down.
That's a breakthrough thing.
So he started to open up his world.
-I think that was sorta like the first time
-that Miki started to enjoy her child as a child.
-It lit sort of like a fire within us to want more.
-Go, go, go, go!
How can we get more of this?
-As a child, Max could not do anything with his fingers.
-His fine motor skill was really stunted.
-So we did tons of therapy working on his fingers.
We had a Rubik's Cube in the house,
-and so he just wanted to solve.
I thought, "Why not?"
-He just gravitated towards it.
-Miki right away went on YouTube,
-and figured out how to solve it, and then taught Max.
-So she had two agendas in mind.
-Here was something that I can use
-as a teaching component,
but, at the same time, he loves it
and... it would be a great thing for them to connect together,
-not knowing at that time that he was just
-gonna rapid-fire down this rabbit hole.
-Oh!
-What is it? -Thirty-one seconds.
-Okay!