Curtis was delayed in several areas as a toddler but walking and running were not among such delays. He walked at 10 months, was running at 12 months and full on sprinting by 15 months. I believe he sprinted from 15 months old until about 9 months ago, straight. He wouldn't get winded, was rarely deterred, and tried to run in any and all public situations. Drug stores were a favorite because he loved sprinted and hugging the aisles as he run on the occasion he broke away. I would take him to a small revine where kids would swim when he was 4 and 5 and we would spend the whole time running laps around the park. Curt's love of water couldn't get him in there among the 15 or so other kids who were splashing water on each other.

I never really minded the running, it was the nature of some of the running that just flat kept me up at night. While Curtis was aware that cars were dangerous he had no fear of them at all. Or bodies of water, or balconies, or anything else that could end his existence. What do you do when your child doesn't respect his own mortality? He seemingly took pride in trying to run away from us and into traffic and this went on until about age 5 when he fell in love with sidewalk chalk. One time when he was 4 I had to almost knock a woman over to catch him in the concourse of a baseball stadium when he broke away from me. He would do this thing where he'd get a little distance on you, shoot you a smile over he shoulder, and kick it into 5th gear. He didn't run so much as glide and it was always effortless. That incident and a recurring nightmare of him running into the path of a moving vehicle still serve as the boilerplate for any anxiety nightmare I may occasionally have.

At a 40th birthday picnic when Curtis was about 5, a friends sister in law saw me chasing Curtis and promised me one day the running would slow. I told her that was nice of her to say but that I didn't believe it. Not only would he not stop running but he'd run straight into his demise just to prove to me that he could. Well, he's 7 now and the running has indeed slowed. He respects cars now (though he still forgets to look when crossing the street), and he has a sense of his own mortality. However, the only thing to do until he slowed down was to stay on top of him every waking second and repeatedly explain the consequences of kamikaze living until he figured it out. As is the general rule with Curtis, it's a shitload of work that is worth every second.

Greg, Dad


I feel confident saying the first 18 months I worked with Curtis my primary goal each day was simply to keep him alive.  Before I met Curtis, his mother cautioned me that he was a bolter and that he was quite fast.  I felt confident with my past experience that this would be no big deal. In fact, Curtis took bolting to a level I had not previously seen.  As Greg wrote, Curtis would simply look over his shoulder, smirk and take off as fast as he could with no regard for collisions of any kind.  While today he no longer bolts, he still loves to run and his body seemingly requires it.  There are few things he enjoys more than a game of tag.  Curtis has learned over time when it's okay to run, be chased, and how to ask for these things.  We are fortunate enough to be in close proximity to a playground that is fully fenced in and this was a great place to take him and teach him how to ask to be chased.  When he took off running, because we were securely fenced in, I didn’t go after him unless he asked me. Once he mastered the fenced in running we moved on to trails.  Curtis would take off running on trails he knew well and ask me to come after him, eventually alerting me instead of just running. He also looked at some online coloring pages about street safety, his favorite being “Don’t stop in the street.”  Slowly but surely Curtis has calmed down and does not bolt at all anymore, not to say I ever let him get out of arms reach.  I was lucky enough to be at his house the day that he looked at his mom and asked, “Mom can we take the locks off the doors?”  Both exit doors had covers on them so that Curtis couldn’t open them simply because he would be out the front door if you turned your head.  Laura did remove the door locks that day and you could see the pride in both of their faces as she did this.  We now work on more functional safe walking, i.e., using crosswalks and waiting for walk signals.  It can be difficult to wait for a walk signal while it is clearly safe to cross, but Curtis is not ready to make that judgment without that little flashing light so I meet him at his ability and we continue to build. With patience, slowly but surely, Curtis always meets the goals set for him.


Jamie, In-Home Support

We realized around the age of 12 months that Curtis was not like other children. He would not respond to his name or make any eye contact. He would spin the wheels on cars instead of rolling them. When we gave him a bag of letters to spell words he made patterns of the letters or laid them out in order. Curtis would not point, wave, and showed no inclination towards speaking.  When Curtis was diagnosed with Autism around the age of 2 years, his mother and I were not exactly sure where to turn for help. Coming to terms with the fact your son (or daughter) has autism is not easy. The developmental disorder is fraught with uncertainty from how your child will develop to how he got the disorder in the first place. Instincts tell us to blame, worry, and fix the problem. It's frustrating to discover the lack of real answers pertaining to autism.

What I really wanted was a projection. You say he is ranked here on the autism spectrum so does that mean he can have a career or make friends or is none of that going to happen? What I've found is that the progress and changes are unpredictable and changes happen fast. I've gone from wondering if he will have the ability to sort silverware as an adult to expecting him to become an engineer (he says artist). My advice to parents of autistic toddlers is expedite your grief over the diagnosis and get to work. Early intervention therapies have been instrumental in our son's progress and have allowed us to unlock his potential but they are not without red tape. If you feel there is a stigma attached to the autism label you're going to have to get over it for the sake of your child. There is simply no benefit to waiting. if you suspect your child has autism there are simple screenings which can confirm or deny the symptoms. If you have already been told by a specialty physician that your child has autism, it's time to get to work.

Greg, Dad

ADHD diagnosis
     Up until Curtis was about 5 years old, he had absolutely zero safety awareness.  He would run full speed into the street and had no regard for how far away from his adult companion he would go.  Despite countless hours of work by his in home support specialist, we were finding it impossible to get him to respond to the simple directions "stop, no, and wait."  I lived in constant fear that Curtis would jump into a body of water, run into a busy street, or fall off of a cliff before he entered kindergarten.  In addition to this fear for his safety, I was also concerned for his development aside from the common delays associated with Autism.  He seemed incapable of sitting for more than 3 minutes, which really compromised his fine motor development, as he could not sit long enough to learn how to hold a pencil, use scissors, and do puzzles.  And he would run around the house for hours on some days and even his most preferred activities couldn't grab his attention.  Again, his in home support spent countless hours using strategies to try to calm his body, but nothing worked for long.
     One day we were walking out of the Children's Museum and his hat flew off his head.  I turned around to pick it up and when I turned back around, Curtis was running full speed toward a busy Portland street and had no plans of stopping.  I ran, screaming, "Curtis, STOP!" but he just laughed and ran faster, thinking we were engaged in a game of chase.  Thankfully, I caught him about a foot from the street, but that was the day I knew he had to be tested for ADHD because his brain was not able to tell his body to stop.
     Once the results came back showing Curtis had ADHD combined type (hyperactivity and attention deficit), we had to face the tough decision whether or not to medicate.  Due to the extreme safety concerns, we decided to go for it.  We had to try 3 different medications before we found the right one for Curtis.  My advice to parents is not to take the first med you try if it has too many side effects.  Every kid is different.  The medication helped Curtis learn safety skills and his fine motor skills skyrocketed because his brain could finally slow down enough to work through those skills.
     Now we use meds to get him through the school day, but generally, he can maintain himself without them on weekends and vacations.  When we go to visit family or a birthday party where there is a lot of stimulation, we can rely on the meds to help Curtis control his body.  He is more successful in certain settings with it and with that success comes pride.  And he hasn't been "smashed up like a pancake" by a car (as he would put it.)

Laura, Mom