When Autism Speaks | Benji Gans | TEDxTheBenjaminSchool

hi i'm debbie Ganz affectionately known in this community as Benji's mom I also have an incredible daughter Carly and a married to will a great dad and a true partner we are our typical family except that were not we chose to change the course of our fate when we were given a very grim autism diagnosis for Benjy seated at a table with 12 experts imagine being told this about your three-year-old son Benjamin is functioning at a level of less than two years old he has very low cognitive ability he has significantly delayed in self-help language skills and verbal skills social skills are severely impaired in layman's terms mom and dad keep your expectations low we were advised to take him home and love him instead of wasting money on unproven therapies back at home Benji was doing his best to communicate his discomfort in the world crying was constant and nothing seemed to give his cries relief instead of having a curiosity about his surroundings he was paralyzed with fear routine sounds everyday life and the presence of family and friends all rocked his little world my efforts to protect Benji from all that he feared led to isolation our isolation left me with time to wonder why I had been so anxious to become a parent in the first place I was exhausted scared and defeated hearing the seemingly hopeless recommendations of the experts felt as if a knife had been jabbed into my heart but it also stirred something deep within me we refused to accept this as the fate of our child in addition to taking him home and loving him we scoured the earth seeking treatments and resources that could help Benji you are about to see that these efforts paid off better than a Powerball ticket as I proudly present to you my son Benji Gans who against all odds is here to tell you his story [Applause] faith mom hi i'm benjy a 13 year old from Florida I go to school I enjoy playing instruments and going for a run I want to fish and I love my family but thought maybe I bet you know some of these people in the audience huh which was wrong as I can remember I've always felt that there was something different about me growing up many skills were difficult for me to learn it was really hard for me to learn to write to throw to throw a ball and to use my hands I used to do things over and over again for example turning lights on and off on and off it drove my parents crazy learning to read was also very hard it was easy for me to learn how to read the woods but it was kind of hot tricky to analyze em too to help me to understand what they met I would hear people when they spoke to me but just like the reading it was hard to understand the message behind them I used to only eat two foods now I eat lots of foods my favorite food is steak that was just me when I was little it's not a stock photo anything like that he was something interesting I did not talk or communicate at all until I was four after hundreds of hours of therapy I sent my very first word Mari it took me years to give up my baby bottle everyone in my life feared I I'd still have it today and even take it to college with me I did not pay attention to anyone or anything because my brain couldn't focus on the right inputs everything sounds louder to me the most other people when I hear an emergency vehicle I've trouble quote-unquote filtering the noise out of my head it's like my ears oh right next to the siren even though I could be like a couple feet away and occasionally I would start to mimic the noise oh the emergency vehicle and that makes my younger sister really mad that's you kiddo I think bugs are though people - hey no offense Carly but they are a little more polite when I was younger it was extremely difficult to try and escape the crab trap with all my challenges in it it's like I was in a crab trap with all challenges and then it was like you know how I crabs can like get stuck and it was like me with my challenges sort of thing through lots and lots of hard work my challenges are so much finer than needs to be it's like I'm so much closer to the exit than I was when I was little my nickname is been TPS so it's like you tell you how to get anywhere sit with using exact street names completely precise and a ultimate mileage I can also play many instruments violin alto saxophone and I'm teaching myself how to play the piano I have strong strong foreign language skills the principal at my school once heard me speak hebrew and mistook me for an israeli a lot of people what's to know when I first understood I was different and I and I found out I had autism I can not recall when I first understood I was different however for as long as I can remember I've been trying to improve those things no skills to help me move through life smoother and easier so how do you change from that kid this boy to the one that is standing in front of you today March 24th 2017 my mom and I went on voyage this is a true story me and my mom went on million dollar jizz all over planet Earth crossing every line of longitude to help me work with special therapists that helped me overcome my fears like a wonderful airiest told us earlier that just little by little she she got over it when you afraid of heights exactly the same with me we did things over and over again my mom might be tiny but she has never been wanting to give up and also I have a lot of amazing people some of you are in the audience so help me learn them - Matt is the things that were more tricky for me as I mentioned before I used a lot of therapies to teach my body and brain had to learn to cooperate with each other yeah can you imagine I know you're sitting right there but I'm gonna talk into a person can you imagine my friend Miss Donna's reaction can you stand up for me miss Donna so everyone can see you can you imagine my friend Miss Donna its reaction when I told if I if if she was not here and I told her I was giving a TED talk another one is occupational therapy ot a special type of massage - to you strengthen my body and minds together like it's like it's like a bongo it's like huh more like a folk of like strengthen my body and you get the strength in my mind to and that's physical I'm sorry I jumped ahead of myself occupational therapy ot is to help build strength in my fingers hands and body like we did many exercises with her and now a physical therapy it's a special type of massage to strengthen my body of mine together it's like to put like occupational therapy did things like individually but but physical therapy actually put it in a melting pot and made it all happen this is the one that that still helps the most and I do know how to do a lot of things to help my body feel more together another contributor wonderful contributor is a special diet one of my daughters fortunately he's not here to join us today remove gluten from my diet and - that I was able to focus much better place number one more than anything the first place for spirituality comes in first place for helping me the most always always always brought happiness to me it really flushed some happiness right inside my deep soul when I was little spirituality has made me happy income and they still do today and you go so how can you I mentioned all the other people that helped contribute and there are some ways that you if I did not mention you I I know there was some of them that I forgot to mention but for the general you can help with autism always always be patient you know your brain processes a lot faster than mine does so just be patient and just let it happen you know what I mean you got to let it happen just like what we have we heard about the selling and you just have to be patient same thing goes here with autism and also you could always like share schedules and plans before they change for example I use this one many times some of us knew some of you have heard it before like for example like silly it was not someone like me like say for example like after school today we are going to we are going to go bowling with our friends and I never started my mom would pick me up from school and say Benji unfortunately cancel and someone is sick that would be a perfect example also and it's unexpected changes completely randomized out of the dark changes are extremely difficult for someone autistic to the always try to keep noise levels down as I said before choices can be amplified to someone autistics use always this is the most important importance one be kind and tolerant we process things differently than you do even if someone does not look at your face there are never never never never intending to be disrespectful your face is it's just too hard for something for someone autistic to deal with it's it's it's it's it's like a it's like abuse it and it's and it's it's like a really hard science test just your face could be like a really hard science test for someone autistic to the always some facts about autism that you might don't already know some things you should know nobody knows what causes autism some doctors think it is gene variations plus environmental pollutants every year more and more kids are diagnosed on the spectrum hopefully something soon we will understand why even scientist experts know knows you cannot take you cannot take a pill to cure autism but I am complete proof that there is a gazillion things that we can do to make it better is not nuts contagious if you were to be like me with autism you're not me walk out a field with autism it's not one it's not like a fever do not think you were going to walk out without do this because I am autistic it is not happening you will not walk out here with all this you'll just walk out of here like yourselves but there's one thing that is contagious and it's a sickness that you want to get you might not believe me but it's true it is called hope sure that if you know what it is and hope is everywhere it's not one of those things that it's it's more affected in Africa than it is United States it is everywhere all over plans in for doctor tells you that your child will never be able to walk talk run we're all something sounds really bad pain of our story that I told you today and I'll just keep trying just keep trying and trying and trying you could be one if you paling of autistic child you could your child could be me if you just keep trying to do what you can it's a possibility again it's steep odds I am here today telling you our story today your speech in front of you al is just another chapter thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 93,580

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Life, Achievement, Behavior, Body language, Brain, Childhood, Cognitive science, Communication, Community, Compassion, Connection, Consciousness, Control, Creativity, Culture, Education, Emotions, Family, Fear, Grit, Happiness, Hardship, Hope, Humor, Impact, Individualism, Initiative, Intelligence, Learning, Life Development, Motivation, Neurology, Neuroscience, Parenting, Passion, Personal growth, Positive Thinking, Progress

Id: CG5Vdi2BfY4

Length: 18min 15sec (1095 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 19 2017