♪♪
Kerry: I definitely think he knows
he is different.
But understanding what role autism plays in that
is going to be a difficult conversation.
Adam: I don't think he necessarily feels bad
about it or feels sorry for himself.
Generally he's a pretty happy-go-lucky kid.
♪♪
Kerry: Kids even before a
year start to babble and Brandon didn't even
babble, he was just silent unless he cried.
♪♪
Kerry: As he progressed we still had no
speech and that was really kind of a huge red flag
for us was that he wasn't saying anything, no words,
no sounds, nothing.
♪♪
Kerry: In the meantime we were having
some more tantrums and really difficult behavior.
He was difficult to take out in public.
We kept adding therapies and so we started with
speech and then we added OT, occupational therapy,
and then we added feeding therapy.
Yes, and then we added the Children's Autism Project
here.
So for a time he was essentially doing four
different therapies.
But there comes a time where we can't do it all
anymore and we have two other kids who are now in
activities.
Carter plays basketball.
Jaina does dance.
And there is a lot of guilt where am I doing
enough?
And trying to balance all three of them at the same
time.
♪♪
(television in background)
Kerry: Brandon
is obsessed with Mario, Mario Brothers, Super
Mario.
He loves every Mario game and that has been an
interest of his for a really long time.
And if we let Brandon, he would play video games all
day, every day.
And so we work on rotating different activities
throughout our day so that he gets some time with the
electronics but then also has time to go outside or
read or cut paper or some of the other things that
he likes to do.
Let's do some scooter.
Does that sound like a plan?
Yeah.
Yeah?
Now he'll probably want to be done.
I can't take it anymore.
Oh really?
Is that rough?
Yes.
How about, tell you what, we do a little bit of
chalk and you can sit and also see Super Mario.
Do you want to do it on the driveway?
There's no sun.
So you don't have to worry about getting sweaty.
Okay?
What do you think?
Do you want to go find some chalk?
Green scene?
Yeah.
What's green scene?
It's kind of like a mix with green and yellow.
Yeah.
Mom, can we go back in yet?
Not yet.
You're doing a good job.
I need a timer now, okay?
No timer yet.
What do you think?
After this chalk?
Maybe after the chalk.
♪♪
Kerry: Middle school and high school are
tough socially for anybody and for him the gap will
get wider as kids start to be interested in movies
and music and things like that and interested in
boys and girls and he's not going to have those
interests.
He's still going to be playing Mario probably.
And so friendship is really hard and that is a
concern I have for when he is an adult too.
♪♪
Adam: Being the parent of a special needs
child is a huge stress on day-to-day living, a huge
stress on relationships with ourselves, each
other, with friends outside of our family,
which makes us a very tight and close knit
family and there's a lot of love between the five
of us but it doesn't come without its challenges.
♪♪
What color?
Green.
Green. I don't have any green.
Kerry: The Children's Autism Project here really
though has changed our lives.
I don't know where Brandon would be if we had not
spent the past five and a half years here.
Ask for a break if someone is loud.
Perfect.
Shelby: An area that Brandon really struggles
with is understanding why people engage in social
behavior, and especially why they engage in
behavior that he doesn't like.
So when Brandon hears a baby screaming in a public
location he will get frustrated and attempt to
yell at the baby and tell it to stop crying.
He doesn't understand that they're not out to get
him.
And so we do a lot of perspective taking on why
is this person upset?
How is your behavior impacting them?
My name is Brandon.
I like to play the Wii.
Shelby: Brandon is pretty famous right now for
saying, it's no big deal, whenever something happens
and that is something that we taught him to cope with
those challenges.
Every year I think we push Brandon on some phobia and
some fear and he always comes out on top.
You're going to lose.
Do you think you can do that with decimals?
Let's go ahead and do this problem today, please.
How do we say that first number?
32 and 1 --
Thousandth?
Tenth.
Times?
Times eight-tenths.
Good job.
Jackie: I am Brandon's general education teacher.
He is in my classroom 80% of the time.
20% of the time he is in special education.
He really loves math, anything on the computer.
I could see him just continuing his love for
computers and just being a whiz on the computer.
He's a very good speller.
He's a very good reader.
It's the comprehension side of reading that is a
little more difficult, especially as books are
getting more challenging and there is a lot more
inferring.
But my expectations for him in the classroom are
just like everyone else's and he really rises to the
challenge.
(door opening)
Go ahead.
Show us where your next room is.
Show them the way.
This way?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Over there.
Room is right here.
Okay.
Tricia: Brandon is only in the special education
classroom for 30 minutes of reading instruction and
30 minutes of social skills instruction, so to
work on that social/emotional behavior
piece.
He now is working on over the last year having a
conversation and being able to start a
conversation with his peers and to carry on the
conversation, how to appropriately end it and
not just get up and walk away or saying I'm done.
Highlight.
We're going to highlight.
You got it.
Tricia: Brandon is the only student that I've
ever had in 22 years to start from kindergarten
through fifth grade.
He has grown a lot from this little kiddo that
didn't talk a whole lot, just trying to get him
to work and stuff, and then to this guy who now
he talks and he'll have a conversation with you and
he'll ask you questions, greets you every morning.
It will be amazing to watch him over the next
seven years to see what he does for sixth through
twelfth grade.
Adam: We know he's going to have limitations, we
just don't know obviously what all those will be.
Long-term what happens when we're gone?
What will he do once we're not around anymore?
Kerry: That also makes me emotional.
That is what keeps me up at night is what happens
when we're gone?
He has two amazing siblings but that's a lot
of pressure to put on a sibling too.
So we want Brandon to be as independent as
possible.
♪♪
Kerry: Brandon has changed our lives and he
has had a huge impact on us and I think we have
both found a strength that we didn't know that we
had.
We just hope that by raising awareness and
telling our story that people will just be a
little more kind, that they will be a little bit
more understanding for those who are different
from them.
And even though Brandon struggles with speech and
he struggles with social skills he wants the same
things that we do.
Sometimes it is really, really hard, but sometimes
it is also just amazing because I feel like we
really have an idea of what is really important
in life.
And sometimes it's not all that superficial stuff.
And if people could understand that then I
guess we've done our job.
Is it done?
♪♪
This program is part of
the Move to Include Initiative made possible
with support from the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the
American people.
♪♪
The Max and Helen Guernsey Charitable
Foundation, in support of educational programming on
statewide Iowa Public Television.
♪♪