Eleven years old and still misunderstood, strangers look at
him and wonder what is wrong with him. The answer is simple nothing is wrong
with him, there is only something wrong with the people that choose not to
understand him. His name is Zachary Ryan and he is different from other eleven-year-old
boys and will always be different.
He has a lot of different habits that his family is glad that
he out grew, like the one habit that would occur anytime he entered anyone’s house
he would strip down to his birthday suit and go take a shower. His grandma says
“I am so glad he out grew that”… Another thing that makes Zachary unique is
that he has a great imagination and love for shopping. The other day his
grandma picked him up from school and Zachary said “grandma lets go explore in
the jungle” than his grandma said “we can’t go to the jungle because I don’t
have enough gas” then he finally talked his grandmother down to taking him to
the dollar store because that wasn’t so far.
Zachary has a specific schedule that he keeps by and no one
can change it or else he would sometimes get upset. Monday through Friday he
goes to school and when he gets home grandma is there to hang out with him, and
he seems to want to always do something with her. Every other Saturday he goes
to his caregiver Polly’s house and they hang around there or they go to the grocery
store. Every Sunday Zachary goes to grandmas to look at newspaper ads, and than
he comes back later and has what he picks for dinner. An example of what he would
say to his mom is “we will go to grandma’s Sunday and have fried chicken for
dinner”.
One time Zachary’s mother threw a party for Zach at his
favorite park and because it was located on the day he was supposed to be with Polly
(even though Polly was there), he was not happy. He made his mind up and wanted
to go to Polly’s home while Polly wanted to party, so they discussed and
decided that they would leave at 3 o’clock sharp. Zachary than went and played
and every twenty minutes he would come back up to us and look at someone’s
watch to see if it was three yet.
The last time I babysat Zach, we were supposed to carve the
pumpkin together (that was a joke). I go to carve the top off and right then Zach
looks at me and says “no thank you”, I said “what about carving your pumpkin”
and he says “no thank you”. So in the end we compromised and I had him draw out
the face for the pumpkin and I carved it for him. He had told me to make it
look happy so instead of doing the mouth he drew, I carved a crescent moon
shape. Now every time his grandma is over he will run to the porch and look
outside, his grandma would then ask “what are you looking at” and he would just
say “pumpkin”.
This eleven-year-old boy has autism, and will always have
autism. Autism is known as a development disorder that affects how the brain
works, this shows up with in the first three years of life. Zachary was
diagnosed with autism when he was almost two years old, and as you may have seen
his autism has shown greatly.
Complicated at times but Zachary’s disorder makes him who he
is and that’s different from the next human being. He is unique, and the
perfect candidate to document. He has the biggest support team on his side, and
even though he doesn’t have a father he has a family that loves him for the way
he is. Zachary is the smartest eleven-year-old boy I have ever met and I know
that he has a great future ahead of him.
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