Texas tot seeks autism service dog
Guest post by April Kellerhuis. Hi everyone! Well, I guess I should start off by writing a little bit about our Chandler-man!
First, I must let you all know that I am NO Jenny McCarthy! You have been warned.
Chandler Kellerhuis is a 5-year-old, NON-verbal, AUTISTIC boy. It took awhile for doctors to finally diagnosis that Chandler has autism. This part of our story is quite frequently told by families with children that are autistic. His final diagnosis was delayed for quite some time by pediatricians and waiting lists! A few doctors even informed us we were just comparing Chandler with our older son, Allan. We took this advice for a short time because every child develops at a different pace and this made sense to us. Allan and Chandler are only 16 months apart, so we felt that maybe we were comparing.
One day, when Chandler was about two years old, I was washing the dishes while Chandler was playing with his trains on the kitchen floor. When I dropped a large pot on the floor, Chandler had no reaction to the very loud noise that even made me jump. I brought Ryan, my husband, in and showed him that Chandler had no reaction to loud noises. Little did we know at the time that he was in his own autistic world, playing with his trains.
At the time, I thought he might be hearing-impaired. That would explain his lack of speech as well. We were put on a long waiting list to get his hearing checked at a children’s hospital in Arizona, to find out his hearing was fantastic!
Upon observing Chandler’s mannerisms, the audiologist thought Chandler might have autism, but told us “not to look it up because it would just depress and freak us out.” The doctor told us that we needed to get on to another waiting list. This time it was for a pediatric neurologist. That wait took ten months. We knew we needed to do something for our Chandler-man in the meantime. The waiting list for occupational therapy was only four months until Chandler could receive his 30 minutes, once a week. Speech therapy would have been ideal but, the waiting list was ridiculous and extremely expensive.
We moved to Texas two months before we had our appointment with the pediatric neurologist. My husband and I were so excited when we found out the wait here in the great state of Texas was only three months!
When we brought Chandler in to see the specialist my husband and I already guessed (from research online and a few other avenues) that he was on the autistic spectrum somewhere but, just wasn’t sure where. We visited with the doctor for approximately ten minutes before he came to the brilliant conclusion, “well, looks like your son has AUTISM!”. That was it. Ryan and I had waited so long to know for sure. A weight had been lifted from our shoulders. Now, we can really begin to help Chandler.
So, like I said before, Chandler is a non-verbal, autistic, 5-year-old boy, and now that’s official!
Even though Chandler is considered non-verbal, he does verbalize a few words. Unfortunately, they all need to be prompted. In time, I know this vocabulary will grow. With a limited vocabulary comes a very limited amount of social skills. This makes communicating extremely difficult in social situations and he doesn’t make friends like his typical peers. It’s like he is stuck, some of the time, in his own autistic world. New people, places, textures, sounds, smells and tastes can be overwhelming for him. Any of these variances could trigger one of “The Meltdowns”. Which, depending on the time of the day, is a tantrum that can be very difficult to contain.
Chandler also has lack of fear. We believe that he is not aware of danger and consequences like others perceive it. Fire, strangers, moving cars, water, or even heights have no effect on him. Chandler is the next generation Houdini! The locks on our front, back and garage doors would indicate we live New York, not Royse City, Tx. On a few occasions, our neighbors have called to let us know that Chandler is currently jumping the fence. My husband has had to re-design the inside of our fence several times with plywood to make it Chandler-friendly. Chandler doesn’t sense danger; he thinks that it is a game. That scares us immensely.
Fortunately my husband and I came across 4 Paws for Ability. It seemed to be the right move for our Chandler. There are only a few of these organizations across the country, offering service dogs specifically for children with their individual needs on the spectrum. Most organizations that train these dogs have a waiting list of four years or more. At this time Chandler has been accepted!!
Ryan and I are so excited!! 4 Paws for Ability (4pawsforability.org) is a non-profit organization (501c3) that will specifically train Chandler’s dog to match all his needs. The total cost for this specific kind service dog is $13,000.
We need to fundraise $13,000 for 4 Paws for Ability to get Chandler qualified for this wonderful program. That is just for the dog and his/her training. We are very determined to make that goal happen! Even though it seems so far away we know that this dog will not only provide comfort and friendship for our son, but also keep him safe.
We want to be able to give Chandler a strong companion who can be with him at all times, one who is trained to provide assistance, protection and give him the unconditional friendship he craves (I can feel that he does).
Autistic children and adults tend to connect better with animals then with people. So, in that, we are working as hard as we can by volunteering our time to raise money for 4 Paws for Ability in order to qualify Chandler to receive this much needed service dog. Every donation counts no matter how small. Whether it folds or jingles, it all adds up! So, help us raise the money for 4 Paws for Ability to find Chandler-man’s best friend!
Every generous donation brings Chandler that much closer to receiving the security and independence that he deserves.
Just a reminder that this is a tax-deductible donation to 4 Paws for Ability, 253 Dayton Ave. Xenia, OH 45385. You will receive a letter of receipt back from 4 Paws for your 2009 taxes.
For any additional information please visit our blog at http://chandlerkellerhuis.blogspot.com Thank you to everyone and God bless!
The Kellerhuis Family