Click photo to enlarge
Walter and Lynlee von Ballmoos with their autisic sons
Reagan (9) (at rear) and Hayden (7). Photo by Craig Baxter.
Imagine communicating through a series of pictures, or
struggling to communicate at all.
Shane Gilchrist delves into the world of autism.
It may be the school holidays but the von Ballmoos family is
unlikely to travel far from their Kaikorai Valley home.
In the words of mum Lynlee, life is "very difficult".
Why? Both her sons have autism.
For Lynlee, husband Walter and their boys, Reagan (9) and
Hayden (7), that diagnosis translates into no family holidays
(or certainly none near water or other potential hazards), no
collective outings to movies, no cafés or restaurants.
In fact, Lynlee says she has no social life.
Why? Well, her youngest is what she terms "a runner and a
climber", a boy completely lacking any sense of danger.
Thus they can't visit others unless the premises are fenced -
and it needs to be a high fence.
"As for holidays, we can't go camping or anywhere with lakes
or rivers nearby. Because of the food situation, we never go
out to restaurants. Hayden wouldn't sit at the table, for
one, and he wouldn't eat the food."
That makes it tough, not only for the parents, but also for
older brother Reagan who, having greatly benefited from a
combination of parental effort, intensive therapy,
early-intervention educational programmes and strong support
at Wakari School, is now keen to share the world enjoyed by
other 9-year-olds: he wants to go to the circus, the flicks,
McDonald's for lunch ...
"We can't do that together," Lynlee says.
"Either my husband does one and the other person does
something with the other child.
"I'll be honest with you. My husband and I have just started
counselling, not because our marriage is breaking up but
because we have very little time to ourselves. We were very
strained.
"We've just started and are finding it really good. We have
an hour where we just talk. It's about spending that quality
time together."
Yet the von Ballmoos family are not alone.
According to Autism New Zealand figures, more than 40,000
people (that's one in 100) in this country have been
diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
The key symptoms of autism are, broadly: difficulties in
relating to other people and situations; impairments in
speech, language and communication; repetitive and
self-stimulatory responses; and obsessive insistence on
environmental sameness.
People with the disability can also have accompanying
learning disabilities but, whatever their general level of
intelligence, everyone with the condition shares a difficulty
in making sense of the world.
As autism has differing degrees of severity and a variety of
forms, ASD is often used to describe the whole range and
includes the condition Asperger's syndrome.
People with Asperger's syndrome are of average or
above-average intelligence and generally have fewer problems
with language, often speaking fluently, though their words
can sometimes sound formal or stilted.
In the von Ballmoos home, Hayden communicates through
pictures.
His autism is severe; he is non-verbal.
To explain what he wants or describe how he feels, Hayden
uses a book that sits, always, on a coffee table.
At this stage, there are three pages solely for his use: one
is for food, another for activities, the other for outings.
"He'll have a picture of himself - 'Hayden wants' - and he
will go through this book and take out what he wants and
point to it: `Hayden wants . . . yoghurt'," Lynlee explains.
