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Oct 30, 2006 11:10 pm US/Central
Max: An Average Kid With An Average Case Of Autism
by Jason DeRusha
(WCCO)
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Max Lewis, 4, an average boy with an average case of autism.
CBS
Autism is a complex disability that is feared by parents as much as it is misunderstood.
It typically appears during the first three years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain -- impacting development of social functions and communication skills.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers it an urgent health problem primarily because one in 166 children born today has some form of autism. Put another way, the National Institute of Mental Health estimates 3.4 of every 1,000 children from ages 3 to 10 are afflicted by the ailment. There are many theories as to why incidents of autism have spiked during the past decade, but no definitive answers.
In order to put a human face on the numbers, we want you to meet Max Lewis. He's 4, an average boy with an average case of autism.
Unlike Dustin Hoffman's character in the movie
Rain Man, Max is not a virtuoso pianist, or a savant who can count cards, memorize the listings in a phone book, or tell you what the weather was like on your 15th birthday.
In fact, it's a good day when Max says anything at all. Perhaps the most challenging times for his mother are when Max seems to shun her.
"It's just not being able to say, 'I want a drink' or 'I want a cracker'," said Chastity Lewis, Max's mother, recalling how Max was still unable to communicate -- let alone say something intelligible -- at age 2.
"When those things weren't happening, that's when we started getting really concerned that something else is going on here," she said. "We needed to find out what it is."
Chastity Lewis quit her job to care for Max full-time. She and her husband Mike moved to the Twin Cities, to be closer to specialists.
"It's changed everything about our life," she said. "From how our house is set up, to the kind of work we do, to where we live."
Ultimately, it took a year of doctor visits, tests and evaluations to land on the diagnosis of autism.
On this day, Chastity loads up Max and her two other kids to get to Courage Center in Burnsville, Minn.
Max gets speech therapy here. Vicky Markhart, a therapist, works on vocabulary and tries to get Max to make eye contact.
But there are victories. Max knows the alphabet. And there are the breakthroughs like the epiphany that occurred after school on Monday, March 27. "He just looked me right in the eyes and said 'I love you' and kissed me on the lips, which is huge," Chastity Lewis said.
"I'll never forget that, I'll remember that more than I remember the time he was born," she said.
Through the highs and the lows, the Lewis family knows that Max's is a mystery, not unlike the disorder that has kidnapped his childhood.
Indeed, it is quite possible that this average boy, with an average case of autism, will live with his parents, for the rest of his life.
"What I want for him isn't really that grand," said Chastity Lewis. "I want him to be independent, to be happy, just what I want for my other kids," she said.
"Just with Max, that will probably be at a different level," she said.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
