Air Force family opens arms to autism

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Kerry Solan-Johnson
  • 435th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AFPN) --  The walls in the Dallas’ home are not festooned with art, but with boards. There are boards with schedules, charts and pictures to guide 4-year-old Liam, and establish routines for everyday tasks such as washing his hands or using the potty.

The charts are part of structured, routine life they must maintain for their son.

“It’s what we have to do,” his parents said. “The communication isn’t always there.”

When Senior Airman Matt and Sonya Dallas had Liam in 2000, the U.S. Department of Health had published the number of schoolchildren in America with autism was 65,396 compared to 53,576 the previous year.

Today, autism affects one in 166 children.

“I remember when he was a year and a half, at the pool or wherever I’d notice other kids and what they were doing, he wasn’t developing language skills,” Mrs. Dallas said. “Liam just seemed to be getting further and further behind.”

Autism, a developmental disability resulting from a neurological disorder affecting the brain, appears by age 3, when most children have passed several milestones in learning language.

At age 2, Liam just babbled.

“Besides the occasional ‘mama’ or ‘dada,’ anything else he said was incomprehensible gibberish, which we began to call ‘Liam-ese,’” Airman Dallas said. “At first we thought we were just being paranoid, thinking something was wrong. Everyone told us, ‘Oh, don’t worry; he’s just a late bloomer.’”

But at age 3, nothing had changed.

After tests with dead ends and pediatricians with no answers, the couple began to worry; however, soon after arriving in Germany, they had their answer.

“We heard the words we had been dreading: ‘Your son has autism,’” Mrs. Dallas said. “At that moment, we began to question all our hopes and dreams for Liam.”

Looking back, they said they knew something was not right.

Many parents had similar experiences: Knowing something was terribly wrong, struggling to understand and finding no good answers.

“I felt something was wrong with our son’s development a year before a pediatrician would refer him,” said another parent of an autistic child, who asked to remain anonymous. “I wish I had pushed harder or taken him to more doctors -- (more parents should) aggressively pursue an answer.”

Autism is a spectrum disorder, with varying characteristics and symptoms.

Liam was diagnosed with high-functioning autism.

Symptoms of high-functioning autism include delayed or absent speech, the inability to appropriately relate to others, repetitive movements, such as hand flapping, and an insistence of a routine.

Liam’s symptoms are not as severe as others; 70 percent of autistic children are also mentally retarded, but Liam is not, Mrs. Dallas said. As a mother and father, they said they do not feel cheated; they do not really even notice it much anymore.

Not when their son pulls them out of the post office line because it’s “too much.” Not when he has to be held down at the barber. Not during the kicking and screaming fits in public places.

“I guess I could say he’s not like a normal child in that you can’t reason with him when he’s having a meltdown: He’s on the ground crying, hands over his ears -- everything gets blocked out,” Mrs. Dallas said. “All you can do is wait until he calms down.”

A child with autism will never “outgrow” it. With treatment, and as the child develops, symptoms may lessen.

“In the past, without (school and therapy), he regressed,” Mrs. Dallas said. “We had to start over. But he’s doing well now. When I look back to where we were a year ago, I thought he was never going to talk.”

Some autistic children will integrate into regular classes, while others will continue to need special education into adulthood.

“Mostly I worry about his social development,” Mrs. Dallas said. “Will he make friends? Will he take a girl to the prom? Will he get married some day? All we can do is give him treatment and education options and try our best every day.” (Courtesy of U.S. Air Forces in Europe News Service)