Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Esther Castillo, Pedro J Acevedo Jr
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000377
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00:29 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn welcome again to Issues
00:32 and Answers. I'm very excited because we have 00:34 two special guests that are returning to us today 00:37 and that is Esther Castillo, welcome back, thank you. 00:40 And Pedro Acevedo and Pedro, I'm so excited 00:44 that you are back, I promised you that this time 00:47 we girls are gonna give you an opportunity to speak. 00:50 Now, I would like to share with you a scripture that is 00:56 Pedro's favorite, and that is II Timothy 1:7, 01:01 For God did not give us a spirit of fear but he has 01:06 given us a spirit of power and love and sound mind, 01:11 or as my translation says of self discipline 01:17 is what it says. So we are going to be talking today 01:21 about Autism and this is our second program on Autism. 01:25 If you are not familiar with it, you learn little bit more 01:29 today but you'll also learn that I don't know 01:33 if we want to say there is a way out. But there is a 01:36 way up, Amen. A way that is a better way 01:38 to deal with children and adults who have Autism, 01:43 and there is hope. God always fills us hope, 01:47 doesn't He? Amen, Amen. Esther let's once again 01:50 let's just establish as we did in our last program. 01:53 What is Autism? Autism is a developmental disability 01:58 that impacts three areas of a person's body. 02:04 There is a delay in language, delayed, yes that's one of 02:08 the behaviors that they demonstrated. 02:11 There is a delay in language, there is a deficiency 02:14 in social interaction and also they will see a repetitive 02:18 and odd behavior, okay. I would add to that, 02:21 that not only you see that the child stop talking 02:25 like in Pedro's case voice was gone, but also when 02:28 they speak, it kind of doesn't make any sense what 02:31 they are saying, they do know what they're saying, 02:33 but for you just need to get used to know that they 02:37 speak in key languages. Also it does affect the 02:41 way, all of the five senses, alright. In some, 02:45 some of them when they are looking at your eyes, 02:46 they could see their blood vessels, 02:47 so they just turn their eyes some place else 02:50 and they won't give you that eye contact, 02:52 because they are seeing more than what a normal 02:54 people see. They hear more and when I say they 02:58 hear more, they feel like a nail is stabbing inside 03:00 of their ears and it's really painful when they hear 03:03 they pitch of your voice, even if you are whistling, 03:06 the sound of a 18 wheeler, a vacuum cleaner and 03:09 an blender, an airplane that is sounding so. It's really, 03:12 really painful what comes through their ears, 03:15 what comes through their eyes, what comes through 03:17 their skin. There are some materials that could 03:20 just make them feel like taking them away because 03:22 they feel like electric, like shocks, so until you address 03:27 every piece of that body that used to be so beautiful, 03:31 but now is reacting completely weird, they won't feel 03:36 at ease and quiet and get to the stage that Pedro 03:39 is at today. But there was, you did take Pedro, 03:43 Pedro was diagnosed, while he first began at the age 03:46 of 18 months after having a very high fever, 03:49 bad ear infection, he lost his ability to communicate 03:53 but he wasn't actually diagnosed until 4-years-old, 03:57 so but you did take him through therapy that 04:01 improved his communication skills, 04:03 because we are gonna be discussing today how 04:05 Pedro is in college and doing very well. 04:08 You've improved his social interaction skills, 04:11 because you been just absolutely delightful Pedro. 04:15 And you have these various therapies have helped 04:19 him so much, but let me ask you as a mother what 04:23 is the most painful aspect of having a child with Autism? 04:29 The ignorance of people who may mean well, 04:33 but still hurt them, every door that is closed to them, 04:37 to see when the siblings like in my daughter's case 04:40 is told, don't bring your little brother to the 04:43 neighborhood to play, because he is cuckoo, he's weird, 04:46 we don't want to play with him, we can play with 04:48 you but not with him. When a teacher say like he 04:52 was told, you know, we were told he does not 04:55 belong in here. When you are like Mary and Joseph 04:59 knocking doors, yes, and everybody is telling you, 05:01 your child does not belong here, sorry but you need 05:04 to take him some place else, it really hurts, 05:06 you know, every, of course it does, every human 05:09 that slam the door on your face and forget that 05:12 your child is a human too; it hurts you more than 05:16 if you are the one who is being stabbed, you 05:18 feel like a part of you as well and because you 05:20 don't have that ignorance because you have educated 05:23 on this you actually after Pedro was diagnosed and 05:27 then growing up and you've gone back to school, 05:29 got your bachelors and your masters in behavior 05:32 science and education. You knew that children with 05:40 Autism even though they may not be able to communicate 05:43 with you, their understanding everything that's been 05:46 said, so they understand when people are making fun 05:49 of them or making derogatory remarks to them. 05:53 So that had to be very painful for you because 05:57 you knew your child was being hurt, 06:00 being crushed in spirit when they heard these things. 06:03 Now tell us just a little bit before we get into the 06:08 resources that you tapped into, give us a little 06:11 fast-forward, just how as he went through these various 06:15 therapies and Pedro when did he start talking 06:18 again? Well, I would say that I wish I could have 06:24 written a diary and a journal, yes, from those words, 06:28 I remember that one of the first time that Pedro say 06:32 his first sentence was when we took his daddy 06:35 for the ozone treatment, I told you before what was 06:39 his condition. Now your husband, four days before 06:43 you learned the diagnosis that Pedro was autistic 06:47 your husband also received a very heavy blow 06:51 in a diagnosis of being HIV positive. He'd been married 06:55 eight years; he actually learned he had been HIV 06:59 positive three years before your marriage. 07:02 He had because of your daughter's heart condition 07:06 when she was born become an alcoholic but when he 07:10 learned of this diagnosis, for, in fact he only had 07:13 six months to live, there was a major change in your 07:16 husband and he came to be a more loving man and 07:21 being more present in the family. 07:25 He lived another seven years, okay that's gone. 07:31 My husband went to a place for alternative medication 07:37 and there they practiced the ozone therapy 07:40 they went injecting on his blood ozone and Pedro 07:45 and my daughter and we all wanted to go through 07:48 the same therapy just to encourage my husband 07:51 to keep himself alive and let him know that we were 07:54 all united as a family to keep in our life. 07:56 As a result of the first treatment with ozone we took 08:00 Pedro that was in my country, that you are saying 08:02 ozone, OZONE, ozone okay, yes. 08:07 And we all went to the capital of my country after 08:11 the first treatment and Pedro heard a boy crying 08:15 and we are just looking at Pedro and suddenly 08:19 Pedro says the baby is crying, so it was the first 08:23 time since he was 18-months-old 08:25 that he came up with the four words sentence. 08:29 How old was he there? He was four, okay, 08:32 four years old, okay so we were really in shock looking 08:34 at him coming up, Pedro were you four, 08:37 when we went to there in 1993? 91, 91, 08:44 okay and how old were you Pedro? Four, 08:47 four yes he was four. And when he said that the baby 08:51 is crying were, we felt, there is no words to 08:55 explain when a child without voice for so many years 08:58 finally came up with his first sentence. 09:01 Then after that we came to the United States and we 09:06 tried different type therapies to get Pedro speaking 09:09 in a way that could make sense, so not only we were 09:12 trying to pull those words out with speech and language 09:15 therapy but we also use music therapy. 09:18 Through music we were trying to pull Pedro out 09:21 of the world where he was and what I did is, 09:24 I didn't have any money to pay a music therapy and 09:27 an art therapy. I used to go to closest university 09:30 and as for people who wanted to do their internship 09:34 with my son. Praise God, so I used to bring my students 09:37 for them to practice and then they were gonna go come to 09:40 my house and through music I remember I have 09:43 those videos where the girl is telling hello Pedro, 09:47 hi, hi, hi playing with the guitar and then Pedro was 09:50 going to sing hello Debby hi, hi, hi. 09:53 And that was the way through music, through pictures, 09:56 through art that Pedro started to communicate 09:59 himself how was his day at school and today many of his 10:05 arts has been in museums and in galleries, 10:08 I have most of the originals at home. 10:11 Now he doesn't draw too much, because the more 10:14 they speak the least they paints and draw but he used, 10:18 he used art to kind of to let us know his feelings 10:21 what he was going through and at his daddy's funeral 10:24 we have beautiful painting that he calling Daddy's 10:29 wake. Since he couldn't speak he spend the whole 10:32 wake drawing picture of his Daddy under coffin, 10:35 drawing picture of people with tears and his art 10:39 therapist was telling him Daddy is in heaven, 10:41 so he draw a picture of his daddy like in a cloud, 10:43 with angel wings, big mustache and then there ticked, 10:47 Daddy is inside of a cloud but then he also draw 10:51 the picture of the coffin like how can he be in heaven 10:54 and I'm seeing myself my Daddy here. 10:56 So it was through art, so we know it by the way I just 11:00 want to insert this that the art therapist was uninformed 11:05 as to the fact that we rest in our graves until 11:09 Jesus returns, so she was probably confusing, 11:12 confusing him, yes, okay. And it was through art therapy 11:17 that helping a lot when he came to communication 11:19 because now he was able to say not only yes which was, 11:25 Pedro are you okay, yes, do you want to die, yes, 11:28 are you ugly, yes, did you kill him, yes. 11:30 He had no concept what the word no meant. 11:35 It took a whole process from babbling to first word to 11:40 second words and by the time he was 13 in a middle 11:44 school through an inclusion program. 11:46 He heard all the students his age talking to him and 11:49 he wanted to imitate them and that was when really 11:52 started increasing his communication skill, wonderful 11:55 13-years-old. Pedro, how old were you when your 11:59 father died? Nine, 9-years old, that must have been 12:04 so difficult for you having to see that what have made 12:09 Dina your daughter about what, 12, 12-years-old 12:13 and he was 9, at what point did you go back to school? 12:17 I went back to school, I would say, 12:24 how old was Pedro? It was in 1996 that I decided 12:29 to go back to school, how old were you Pedro, 12:31 nine, he was, 1996 it like one year before my, no, 1992. 12:38 One year after we got Pedro's diagnosis I convinced 12:41 my husband to let me go back to school, 12:43 okay that's wonderful. And my husband was translating 12:47 for me most of my work because English was his 12:50 primary language so I encourage him okay, 12:52 1991 you were diagnosed that you are going to die, 12:55 but you could make it up, you could do it. 12:57 And you and I are going to graduate together; 12:59 we need to learn more about Pedro, Amen. 13:01 So my husband felt, saw this functional as he grew up, 13:04 he says do you believe that I can go to school 13:07 and make it? And we went all the way up to the 13:10 masters degree same university, same school 13:13 and he was helping me, my thesis was edited by him, 13:17 praise the Lord. So he was you know if it wasn't 13:20 because, I don't know if I told you before 13:22 he was kidnapped after having a healthy body 13:25 he was kidnapped by the same person who gave 13:28 in the ozone treatment the person became so mentally 13:31 ill and begged my husband to come and help in my country 13:36 and he didn't allow my husband to eat for two months, 13:38 oh mercy. So my husband got cancer on his liver 13:41 and when I brought him back he was given four weeks 13:44 to live. But he lived those seven years, 13:48 the social security company told him you don't need 13:52 our services anymore, you are healed, 13:54 praise God and he was just singing with us and 13:58 praising the Lord, attending church there in my country. 14:00 And it was really encouraging; 14:03 because he was gonna get the month, 14:05 we were going to graduate together but I went down 14:07 without him. Yeah, he died just a few days before, 14:11 he died on January 1st and I graduated in June, 14:14 in June just a few months before, 14:16 now let's get back to then the Autism because 14:20 there are different levels of Autism as far as the 14:24 functions, there is some that are more highlight 14:27 functional than others but it appeared you had people 14:30 telling you, your child would never speak again and 14:33 yet you trusted in the Lord you were very 14:36 proactive in treatment and what are some of the 14:41 resources I know that you were telling me a most 14:45 astounding statistic. One out of every 150 families 14:51 are hearing the diagnosis today that your child is 14:57 autistic. So this is becoming a national epidemic 15:01 I know in United States, I am not sure I've heard 15:03 it other countries it is as well. And it's becoming 15:07 as prevalent as diabetes and anything else 15:10 and yet it's not, hasn't always got the attention 15:13 that it needed before but this year has been declared 15:17 the year of Autism they set aside what date for that? 15:21 April 2nd, April the 2nd. Tell us some of the resources 15:26 that are available? Well, the world is so blessed 15:30 because when I was given the diagnosis to my son 15:33 there was almost nothing there and I think I told 15:35 you before how he used to come. He used to come 15:38 to my house with scratches on his face and on his 15:40 chest because teachers do nothing about sensor 15:43 integration therapy. Today not only, 15:46 so this happened while they were trying to restrain him, 15:49 yes because they thought that all they could see 15:51 it was behavior. In the past twenty years ago 15:54 any child who was throwing the temper tantrum whole 15:56 day so was behavior. And still today many people 15:59 believe in applied behavior and analysis which 16:03 is one of the resources and programs that are there 16:06 but to me the multi sensory approach is the best 16:09 one because it addressed every need. 16:12 But there are two big entities in the United States 16:15 and one of them is the Autism Society of America 16:19 in which I have been a member since 1994 16:21 and if anybody wants to contact them, 16:24 or they have to those who go into the web page 16:26 which is www.autism-society.org. 16:32 Okay let me repeat that, that's 16:33 www.autism-society.org, www.autism-society.org 16:50 and then the second one is autismspeaks.org, 16:55 okay so that's www.autismspeaks.org, 17:01 www.autismspeaks.org. alright, now what kind 17:06 some things will you find at this? Because, 17:08 I know you brought some information, yes. Let's get 17:11 into that because you've brought some information 17:13 and did you get these tips, from this these web 17:19 pages, yes. When you become of the Autism society 17:23 of America, they send you like a survival kit okay 17:26 and I found this awesome, because this is a status 17:31 for your card, yes for the card, alright. 17:33 And it says three things you can do today to protect 17:35 a person with Autism and the message here 17:38 it says in case of emergency occupant with Autism 17:43 may run away not respond, resist help. 17:48 Alright, so you are putting this on the windshield 17:53 of the car so that you can alert police or ambulance 17:57 or any personnel that maybe kind of responding 18:02 to an accident or a tragic event, 18:04 yes and letting them know these are the behaviors 18:07 that they might expect from the occupant of this car. 18:10 You said they might run away, resist help, 18:13 there are some other things too, yes not respond, 18:16 not respond, even if they call them and the reason 18:19 why we have this is because many people have 18:21 been killed out of ignorance of the emergency 18:26 responders. So in other words a policeman is speaking 18:31 did not realizing, this is a person with Autism they 18:34 are telling them to halt, this person's running or 18:36 they're acting you know, acting now becoming 18:39 aggressive just because they are afraid and then they 18:42 found the need of using the electric shot or shooting 18:45 them and we've been losing teenagers, 18:48 and we've been losing adults because the emergency 18:50 responders have no clue how to restrained them, 18:53 there was another training that I took, I'm 18:55 an international instructor in non-violent crisis 18:58 prevention intervention, okay. This is also something 19:04 that comes with the kit and its says children and adults 19:07 with Autism may not understand what you say, 19:11 appear deaf, be unable to speak or to speak with 19:16 difficulty like in Pedro's case may appear insensitive 19:19 to pain, may dart away from you unexpectedly, 19:23 may wonder anywhere at any time and wanderers 19:26 like it happened to Pedro, they are often attracted 19:29 to water sources such as pools, ponds and lakes 19:33 and drowning is the leading cause of death 19:36 for a person with Autism, oh mercy. 19:38 So it says they may become upset for no apparent reason, 19:41 so I will suggest that anybody who has a person 19:44 with Autism in the family, don't ever, ever, 19:47 ever argue with them. With the girls there are 19:51 extremely hyper, but with the boys which have been 19:54 probably one in four is a boy. They are more subtle, 19:58 but please do not get them to a point that they may 20:02 attack you. Because they get kind of blind and it's 20:06 an overpower that takes their body and they may hurt 20:09 you even though they didn't mean to do that, okay. 20:12 They, they, when you frown your face they feel like 20:15 you are howling to them or screaming to them 20:18 and when you scream they feel like everything is falling 20:20 under head. Especially if they have the acuity those 20:24 sensory acuities that it's so much louder than what 20:27 you and I would actually incur or how it affects us. 20:31 Now so we have these, we'll repeat this in just a moment 20:36 so that people can get this and I would like to your 20:41 email address is, ecastillo@hotmail.com right, 20:51 e for Esther castillo at hotmail.com, 20:55 in case somebody wants to get touch with you, 20:58 oh ecastillo1816 let me repeat that. 21:03 Ecastillo1816@hotmail.com if you want to get in touch 21:08 with Esther because she's been down this road. 21:11 Tell us, we're sitting here with his fascinating 21:14 trophy here, the statue and what was this reward 21:19 given to Pedro, how he started making grade advances; 21:24 you've got him in school, why was he given this award. 21:27 Well it says that because he was the resident 21:31 of the year, the resident of the year and that was 21:33 one of every year Pedro that one of this from his 21:37 dean of the dorm, praise God, the men's dorm, 21:40 because of his behavior he also received some others 21:43 because he never ever miss any activity the university, 21:47 praise God and also I would like to share with you 21:50 a shirt that was given, alright, to us, please. 21:55 And if anybody any university teacher any elementary 21:59 teacher is handling a student with Autism, 22:04 could you please read it for, okay you said this was a 22:07 Chinese proverb it says tell me I'll forget, 22:11 show me I may remember, but involve me and I'll 22:15 understand. By the way you've proven that to be true, 22:18 haven't you? So now let me ask this, 22:23 first of all I do want, we are running out of time 22:26 and I want to give Pedro a chance to speak here. 22:32 Pedro what are you studying in college, 22:34 computer technology, computer technology 22:38 now let me ask you, what did you, when you are going 22:40 to the Christian University, what did you like most 22:43 about being on campus there? A quiet place, 22:51 spirituality and singing the choirs like God fears, 22:56 one desire gospel choir, and the understandable 23:00 teachers, wonderful. So that was a good experience 23:05 for you. Now where you are going to school now? 23:10 Richland County Community College, 23:12 alright and when do you want a graduate from college, 23:16 May 2009, May 2009 that's a good go in computer 23:20 technology. We are excited and you know that you were 23:24 very blessed to have such a proactive and loving momma, 23:28 you know that, don't you? Yeah. 23:33 Well now, we know there is one thing that occurs to me 23:37 before we run out of time here, you have another 23:43 child and that's Dina, how has Dina gone through 23:47 all of this, we got a couple of minutes left, 23:49 tell me about Dina's journey, yes. Dina was able, 23:54 this is her, okay, here, pretty girl. 23:57 And she was able to write down on her own words, 24:00 the title of this book is in her own words. 24:04 What does it mean to be a sibling to child with Autism, 24:07 okay? And at the beginning it was uneasy because 24:11 she was the princess at home, before Pedro, 24:16 right and she could kill him if she could, you know. 24:21 But eventually she became his little teacher; 24:25 she taught him every concept from colors for numbers, 24:28 she went through the pain of knowing that neighbors 24:31 were going to tell her we just want to play with you 24:33 and not with him, knowing that she was always 24:35 invited to birthday parties but not her brother. 24:40 She has gone through the same pain looking 24:42 at me struggling and telling her like I like here 24:45 on today's days I am not strong anymore, 24:47 I don't feel life having for his raise any more 24:50 and even though she is in the Dominic Republic 24:52 she says you are our hero momma, 24:53 don't give up go to the universities, 24:56 speak to the President, that's not the momma 24:58 that raised us, I know you could do it mommy. 25:01 And she has decided to study clinical psychology, 25:05 to embrace and help other children like her brother. 25:08 That is a big praise the Lord and I know she loves 25:10 Pedro very much and you know I want to give 25:14 those three, let me give these three addresses 25:18 again before we've been out of time. 25:20 And these are web addresses here, 25:22 if you know someone with Autism or perhaps 25:25 it's affected your family you can go to 25:28 www.autismspeaks.org or to www.autism-society.org 25:46 so that's www.autismsociety.org 25:51 or you can email Esther Castillo at 25:55 ecastillo1816@hotmail.com if you have questions or 26:06 need little encouragement for what's going on in 26:09 your life. Esther if you had one message that you 26:14 could leave with people today about being sensitive 26:18 to the needs of autistic children, 26:21 autistic adults what would say? I would tell them 26:24 that there is nothing impossible to God, 26:28 and that God will never give a child who is so precious 26:34 who is so special and exceptional to someone 26:36 that he knows that he went to mistreat that child. 26:39 I would tell the families of the parents with the child 26:41 with Autism to be understanding and to be 26:46 a helping hand, sometimes we need somebody 26:48 who can tell us leave your child with me just go, 26:50 take a rest and take a break but more than anything 26:52 I want to make a call to the university teachers, 26:55 please open the door to our children after many 26:58 years bringing the child to a university level 27:02 we need an open door and in heaven you will see 27:05 the results, Amen, Amen. Esther Castillo you are an 27:09 amazing woman and I am so glad that you came 27:11 and shared from your heart and some very 27:14 practical and pragmatic advice, and thank you 27:18 so much for being here today, thank you. 27:20 And Pedro you are a cutie pie and you are also, 27:23 I'm excited for you that you gonna be graduating 27:26 in May of 2009, thanks for coming, thank you. 27:30 Now for those of you at home I hope that 27:32 you've been encouraged by today's message to see 27:35 that really truly nothing is impossible with God 27:39 and it's Pedro is always God is not given me a spirit 27:43 of fear but a spirit of power and love and sound 27:46 mind and he is proving that. Now may the grace 27:50 of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of the father 27:52 and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you |
Revised 2014-12-17