| id #CCCCCC; background-color: #ffffff;" /> | | | | Soon a new educational system soon evolved. |
| Autism. I heard the diagnosis but my heart raged | | | | The educational tools were pictures, videos, logos. |
| against what my mind knew to be true. I was | | | | I discovered that many children with symptoms |
| aware of the possibility as the signs were clear, | | | | of autism were also highly visual and have at least |
| but still I was devastated. But such was the | | | | one highly visual parent. |
| situation that despite being a world renowned | | | | Both parent and child think in a color world of |
| brain specialist and an expert in communication | | | | images rather than words. The parents are in |
| problems, I faced a blank wall becoming simply | | | | fields like engineering, architecture, medicine, |
| another mother faced with a difficult diagnosis. | | | | computers, art, and business. They are extremely |
| I clearly remember the day I was in the hospital | | | | capable of intelligent thought and communication |
| about to give birth to my third child. The | | | | but they think in pictures first and then convert |
| contraction inducing drugs had been administered | | | | to words. The autistic child of the visual parent |
| and I excitedly looked forward to meeting my | | | | may have visuals that are over-working to the |
| new baby. I focused on my breathing, the | | | | point that language in under developed or as in |
| doctor's instructions and the fetal heart monitor. | | | | Whitney’s case non-existent. |
| Suddenly, the room cleared and the doctor spoke. | | | | This inability to process and produce language can |
| "The umbilical cord is wrapped around the baby's | | | | lead to onset of as many as 50 symptoms in |
| neck four times…listen carefully to my | | | | behavior, coping and communication. From |
| instructions," he paused. "Cheri, this is the hardest | | | | Whitney’s change profile, I isolated |
| thing you will ever be asked to do." A few | | | | symptoms that characterize prognostic predictors |
| months later, I was beginning to suspect that | | | | of becoming symptom free. |
| wasn't true. | | | | Our goal for Whitney was to help him become |
| Whitney seemed to have no emotional responses. | | | | symptom-free and to enable him to become his |
| While the other older children would cuddle with | | | | own advocate. Soon my son was telling a |
| me, their youngest sibling was lost in his own | | | | committee, and winning his argument, that he no |
| world. It was as if he was a shell for whom his | | | | longer needed special education support. Whitney |
| parents or siblings did not exist. | | | | was right. By high school he was one of the bright |
| Having worked with thousands of stutterers, | | | | kids of the school, playing championship football |
| apraxics and stroke patients as well as children | | | | for an outstanding team, winning state honors in |
| with delayed language, I was faced with a major | | | | science and acting and producing plays. |
| question. Did Whitney have a disease that would | | | | Now Whitney is studying for his degree in |
| need a cure or did Whitney have a group of | | | | Chemical Engineering in New York City. To hear |
| symptoms that could be trained. If I could figure | | | | Whitney tell his own story go to |
| out the symptom clusters as I had done with the | | | | The mother in me struggled against the doctor in |
| other communication disorders, then perhaps, | | | | me when considering -whether to share my |
| Whitney could learn to become symptom free. | | | | family’s traumatic experience with the |
| I discerned a pattern—Whitney, had a | | | | world or let it be a closed chapter. This was |
| knack of returning to places he had been to | | | | particularly so as the topic was unpleasant to |
| earlier. He was also always ripping apart his toys | | | | Whitney. The mother wanted to protect my child |
| and examining their working. Most importantly, he | | | | and honor his wishes but what of the other |
| was problem solving. This was no mentally | | | | mothers who were enduring this challenge? |
| retarded boy. He seemed to accessing his visual | | | | Whitney, himself, reconciled this dilemma for me |
| memory and his visual mechanical thinking. | | | | as he feels strongly that his story should be used |
| My 15 years of research before | | | | to help others. He and his siblings helped me write |
| Whitney’s birth had fine tuned my mind to | | | | a book Maverick Mind. The book’s |
| catch the pattern –this would be the way | | | | revelations of my path breaking discovery were |
| to pierce the walls of silence surrounding my | | | | hailed by the scientific community and harried |
| darling son. My other children, Vanessa and William | | | | parents alike. The visual thinkers or Highly Visual |
| and I worked together to reach William through | | | | Minds are now called Mavericks. |
| his silent visual world. | | | | |