Willey Gale, a 13-year-old Coralville boy with autism, sat close to his mother, Casey, one March evening counting the days to spring break on her fingers.
“Saturday, one. Sunday, two,” he said, clutching a finger for each number.
What did Willey plan to do during these days?
“Play video games!” he answered loudly.
Moments later, he wriggled from Casey’s arms and darted up carpeted stairs. He ran past a ketchup stain, the mark of another of Willey’s endearing quirks – he loves ketchup – and into his room. That’s his haven; it’s where he acted out scenes from two shows he was watching at once – one from his television, another from his laptop.
Treatment Lets Mom, Willey Connect
“No school tomorrow,” he told Casey, as she sat next to him in his room. “Don’t you wake me up.”
Willey has his own way of doing things, and in all likelihood, he will never talk to his family in a typical way. But with speech treatment, he has made progress, and Casey loves his unique language of short sentences.
“We can have conversations with him now, and that’s important,” she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment