‘A typical boy’

Grayson Richert spent Thursday afternoon running around the lobby of I Think I Can Daycare in Creston with a giant smile stretched across his face.

The 2 1/2-year-old son of Sonya Richert zoomed and zipped back and forth across the room, carrying two sets of dress-up glasses while jabbering a million miles per hour.

It’s a scene not out of the ordinary, as Grayson is just like all the other children at I Think I Can Daycare.

Those none the wiser would never be able to tell that Grayson has autism spectrum disorder, which he was diagnosed with in October 2017 through Creston’s new Child Health Specialty Clinic Regional Autism Clinic of Iowa (CHSC RAC-I).

“A very happy little ball of energy. I don’t know how else to describe him,” his mother Sonya said. “He loves to play outside. He loves to play in the dirt. He’s a typical boy. He loves to go to the park and run. He loves to run.”

There are only slight differences Grayson displays.

“He loves to play with straws,” Sonya said. “Red straws are his favorite thing to play with. He doesn’t really play with typical toys. He’s carrying those glasses around. He likes to have two of everything, one for each hand.”

Sonya, who works in the Creston Community School District as a paraeducator, said she first began to think Grayson might be autistic around his first birthday. At his 18-month checkup, she pushed his general practitioner to refer the family to the AEA.

“He didn’t recognize his name. He didn’t have any words,” Sonya said. “He didn’t really play with kids his own age very much. He was just always kind of off doing his own thing. I work in special education, so I could recognize the signs early on.”

Because of her background in special education, Sonya was able to recognize those early signs. When she called Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines to try to set up an appointment, she found out it would be April before Grayson could be seen there.

That’s where the strong support system Creston offers came into play.

Sonya first met with Michelle Hicks of Autism Society of Iowa in August, when Hicks did an evaluation of Grayson. Hicks then told Sonya about Creston’s new Child Health Specialty Clinic RAC-I and that it could do the diagnosis.

The CHSC RAC-I includes specialists who have training and experience in screening, diagnosing and developing treatment plans for children and youth with autism spectrum disorder.

Having that diagnosis early was important, Sonya said.

“The earlier you start interventions, the better your child will be,” she said. “My biggest thing is for parents who have any doubts, just have your kid evaluated. There’s no shame in it. Some people want to be in denial, but it’s not doing anybody any good. Getting your kid help helps you. It helps them live the best life they can.”

Challenges

Living with autism hasn’t changed life for Grayson’s family, but it has presented some challenges.

The biggest challenge so far has been communication, since Grayson hasn’t been able to communicate with words.

“He’s starting to get frustrated with not being able to communicate, so that’s tough,” Sonya said. “When he was sick last week and he can’t tell me what’s wrong with him, that’s definitely one of the biggest challenges – when there’s something wrong, he can’t communicate that.”

Grayson started learning American Sign Language around his first birthday as a way for him to communicate with his family.

He started with the words “more” and “all done.” Sonya said “more” was an easy word for him to learn, since he would get something when using it.

“It’s also really rewarding when he does learn new things,” Sonya said. “He’s a joy. Even though he has his challenges, it’s still great.”

He has also been using an electronic talking device – a tablet with buttons that correspond to different words.

“It only has four different buttons, so we change them depending on what we’re working on,” Sonya said. “Right now, we use it mainly at snack time so he can start to understand the concept that if he pushes the button for Cheetos, he will get a Cheeto. It’s just getting him to realize that button correlates to him getting what he’s asking for.”

The family also uses a picture exchange communication system, in which Grayson has pictures of various items – such as his cup or his blanket – and he can bring those pictures to family members to let them know he wants the item.

Sonya said Grayson has become more interactive since the family got him an emotional support dog in November.

“He’ll interact with me and his siblings and that’s about all until we got the dog,” she said. “The dog doesn’t give him much of a choice but to interact. He’ll chase him around and tug on his clothes to get him to play with him. It’s been really helpful. We got him as a puppy so he could grow up with Grayson and they could have that bond.”

Support

For Sonya, the level of support available in the Creston community has been a blessing.

“Creston is kind of a small community, but we are really lucky to have the Child Health Specialty Clinic. I never really knew anything about it before going through it with Grayson,” she said. “We’re also really lucky to have such a good AEA and Michelle, because she is amazing. A lot of places don’t have someone like that.”

Hicks makes home visits with the Richerts twice a month through the Green Hills AEA’s Early ACCESS services to work with Grayson. Both Hicks, a speech-language pathologist, and Maureen Lonsdale, early childhood specialist, make home visits through the program.

“We work on schedules, item recognition – we work on that a lot,” Sonya said. “The biggest goal is language, getting him language.”

Sonya said she hopes Grayson learns language so it will make everything easier for both himself and his family.

But most of all, she just wants him to be happy.

“At his age, it’s hard telling what his functioning level will be as he grows up, but as long as he’s happy, that’s all I care about,” she said.

The family is excited to take part in its first Autism Awareness 5K run, walk, barefoot challenge and resource fair next weekend.

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