Special Lifetimes: Mothering and Autism

Join me, Erin Martin-Brown, for this special episode with guest Deborah Craver. Deborah's 19 year-old son, Aaron, has Autism.

Aaron is a low functioning verbal autistic 18 year old.  His art time has been used by the school for motivation to complete assignments.  As a result, he has created wonderful mountain scenes of the Alaska landscape.
 
Acrylic paint is the medium used for most of his pictures, but now that Aaron is in high school and is enrolled in Art Classes, he is discovering that he can do the Denali Mountain in different mediums.  Acrylic paint dries quickly and is non-toxic in case some of the paint enters Aaron’s mouth.

Art has been the one area that Aaron expresses himself freely.  It is rare to find him without some book or picture of the Denali Mountain close at his side.  This mountain seems to comfort him and painting or drawing it releases something inside of him that we do not understand.  As his mother, I am still wondering what he is trying to say each time he expresses this mountain.  One time he painted it with an alligator at the base of it.  Now, an alligator in Alaska is not what you would find naturally but Aaron expressed his feeling somehow by creating this image.

Aaron also uses sketches to tell when something is wrong.  He does read and write, but it seems because of the autism, verbal communication is difficult and very rare.  Painting is not. We are now residing in Camden, Delaware where Aaron is enrolled in the Charlton Autism Program .

Call in to join the conversation as Deborah talks about what life is like mothering a child with Autism, the challenges she faces, and how she gets through with a smile.