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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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]