Autism Touches Every Part of Everything

I am not sure when the moment hit because I was so deep into autism, I did not even realize the epiphany I had.

When Jayden was diagnosed just before age three I had so much hope, and do not get me wrong I am still filled with tons of hope for Jayden’s future.

I just had some unrealistic expectations of life like ‘The Good Doctor type of autism’ instead of the autism that has a potty timer going off every thirty to forty-five minutes, depending on the day.

Somewhere during our journey, I accepted that and embraced it, but not before realizing that autism was not just a neurological condition my son has.

Autism affects every aspect of everything.

It determines how much sleep our entire house is going to get every single day.

It determines how many times I am going to yell get off the counter every single day.

It determines how many times Jayden is going to try and elope every single day.

It determines if we can go to the grocery store or restaurant on a given day.

It is why we cannot go the movie theater or travel on an airplane.

It determines if our family of four enjoys an activity together or is split up to divide and conquer the task.

I feel like I could go on forever. But somewhere along our journey, I realized that autism has touched every part of our day.

We have adapted so much that I never even took a moment to look and realize how much we modify to accommodate Jayden’s needs.

We literally have a behavior plan for everything.

My house is baby proofed to where his level of fine motor skills are so he cannot open the doors.

We have alarms and a camera in his room but even with a camera in his room, he needs to be watched by an adult at all times because, in one second, he can be on top of his closet or just sitting on the top of our refrigerator.

It was a wow moment, but I am so grateful was able to have the tools to have been taught how to modify my home and learn methods to help Jayden learn.

I missed the moment because I was in the trenches.

I was doing whatever it took to get through each day. Any suggestion that came my way I tried because I was desperate.

ABA therapy changed our life. I do not know where we would be without it.

ABA therapy gave us back our life, it just changed things up a bit.

However, every plan we make is so individualized to Jayden and our family dynamics that I could not be more grateful to all the therapist that have helped us get to where we are today. There have been so many and each of you have been so vital.

Today, I can play with Jayden.

We have so much fun.

He speaks so limitedly but it gives me hope that someday he will talk to me.

He memorized a whole movie, The Lion King, down to the very last song of the credits.

Only the mother of a child previously considered nonverbal would be proud of that, and I am so very proud.

I am sure throughout this journey I will miss more of those moments in this process of constant evolution autism takes us on but they are not lost.

They are valuable moments in a literally constantly moving journey understood by so few.

Written by, Kirby Morgan

My name is Kirby and I am the mom to two amazing little boys Jayden who is seven, Jaxon who is four and I have a have one bonus daughter Kayla who is seventeen from my husband’s previous marriage. My son Jayden was diagnosed with Autism at two years and four months old. I was pregnant with Jaxon when I received Jayden’s diagnosis and Jaxon was born four months after Jayden’s diagnosis. You can follow our journey at Beyond Autism Jayden’s Journey.

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