Meet Jace

MYRA: Jace is he's a very bubbly goofy seven-year-old kids with autism are very bright they're very smart my son teaches me things that I never knew in the past and I just keep learning from him and it just opens my eyes to see a whole different world that I didn't know that there was so what Easterseals mean to me and my family I feel like it means empowerment it gives us life skills i feel like it means a lot of hope and healing as well to know that there's people out here that love and care your child just as much you do since Jace has been coming to Easterseals he's learned how to use his communication board his tablet so that's how he communicate with us a lot better even though he's nonverbal I feel like we can still have that little bit of communication with a device he's learned how to share he's more open to connect with other children and be more present when like we have family gatherings as well BRIDGET: Jace came to Easterseals he was uh that kid that kind of just observed and stood in the corner and watched for Jace it was a lot of figuring out what he's interested in just getting him to you know run around try and engage with his peers maybe even just like go over to a ball touch a ball but he wasn't engaging with anything when he first got here now he'll do the rock wall by himself he'll run up and down the stairs he still is an observant kid he likes to see what's going on but now he's more willing to try things STEPHANIE: here at Easterseals we have an early intervention program where we serve kids from 3 to 6 years old we have a classroom team that has a special instructor such as myself JACE has grown so much within the last year he's been here 2 years and it's just been amazing he comes into school and he's so happy he's coming independent he uses his device in the classroom he follows a classroom routine BRIDGET: just working with a team working with OT speech the teacher and the families uh it's really nice to make an impact on a kid's life it's always great to see them achieve their goals and turn out better than when they arrived. MYRA: children with autism I feel like they bring so much hope and so much joy like anytime a parent with a child with autism might be going through something I know that they look at their child and they just say "If he can do it or she can do it I can do it as well