. . . Winter 2003

An Update From Mason’s Father

Mason is almost 3 now. You wouldn't know anything is wrong with him till you compared him with other kids his age.

Jackie and I noticed something was wrong first when he was about 16 months old. When we'd put him in his bouncy seat, I could get right in his face and he would stare and seem to look right through me. That's a textbook symptom but we didn't know it right off. Or he might just sit and spin Tupperware lids over and over and seem really unusually excited. He'd drop his mouth and stretch out his hands and fingers, like a kid getting a birthday cake, and tremble for a few seconds. We thought it odd he'd have this same reaction for different experiences, and we'd just tell ourselves that he was cute. The same thing happened when he got one of those tops that operate with a metal plunger. He'd spin it over and over and over and just seem too excited. We told friends, and they'd say, "Oh, one of our kids did that. He'll outgrow it." Then he began to drop recognition of the five or seven words he'd learn. Jackie is an occupational therapist and she dug out one of her old college child psychology books and began reading. When she read about autism, she saw he had six or seven of the 10 symptoms listed. She showed me. Needless to say we were up all night, pacing, sobbing, hovering over Mason's crib. What had we done? What could we do?

We wanted the best treatment for him and heard that would be at the University of Michigan. But like most people our insurance didn't cover anything and still doesn't. It costs about $3,000 to get evaluated, and we live check to check. We hated to put a price tag on it. We learned that the school system offers free evaluations. We took Mason, and they said, "autism." We still teetered on denial. But my mom said, if the U of M is the best, go there. I'll pay half. The Autism and Communication Disorders Center put us on a payment plan. They were wonderful. Maybe in our lifetime we'll see a cure.
[The Ablers agreed to help Corsello by being subjects of her three-hour training seminars during which graduate students and therapists watched the Ablers play with Mason—JW.] Because we documented so much about him, Dr. Lord thought our case would be especially helpful. I keep lots of notes.That helped Mason get identified at 16 months, a very early age.

I have Tourette's syndrome, so I like to talk, though it's a constant struggle for me to control my speech. My eyes welled up and I was intrigued by the fact that doctors and students were clinging to all my words. I knew there were now 45 additional assessments of our son because of the training sessions we participate in. They will discuss him and compare notes, and those students will go out into the field with our son as a benchmark. It was satisfying. I've done something, and I told the clinic, if there's anything else we can do to help, just ask us.—Jim Abler to Michigan Today.

U-M Autism and Communicative Disorders Center (UMACC)>>

Diary of Jim Abler>>

Little Victories>>