Understanding and Supporting Autism in Howard County

When Sherri Braxton-Lieber’s son was a few months old, she and her husband noticed that he wasn’t developing the way other babies were.

There are certain milestones that a healthy baby reaches -- raising his or her head, smiling, swatting at nearby objects, babbling. Her son, Braxton-Lieber said, was not reaching them all.

After months of concern, the family visited a pediatrician who answered their questions about their son’s development.

Ethan was autistic.

“I just felt numb,” Braxton-Lieber said. “It was a very difficult day for us. All I remember is ending up in a fetal position at the bottom of the stairs.

“Emotionally, we were faced with an uncertain future,” she said.

Braxton-Lieber is now the co-president, with Marianne Ross, of the Howard County Autism Society, the local chapter of Autism Speaks, a science and advocacy organization that funds autism-related research and acts as an advocate on behalf of people with autism and their families.

Through HCAS, Braxton-Lieber can help parents who, like herself, felt lost trying to understand what a diagnosis of autism means for their child.

“Parents have to do a lot of ground work unless they hire someone to do the research,” the Clarksville resident said. “But the Autism Society helps with resources and those first steps."

And on Sunday, parents and kids from around the community can help support Autism Speaks at the sixth annual Kidz Konvention at the . From moon bounces to ballet and magic, there will be a full day of kid-friendly activities, both educational and just plain fun.

There will also be presentations for parents on two important issues, autism and parenting to prevent bullying.

The event is $5 for parents and $2 for the kids. Proceeds will help Autism Speaks, which advocates on behalf of the 1 in 110 children that is believed to have some form of autism, a dynamic group of developmental brain disorders that fall along a wide spectrum of severity.

In Ethan’s case, he does not need medication, but he does requires physical therapy and receives help support from the Howard County Public School System's Early Intervention Services.

“Outside of school, because he has low muscle tone, he also receives physical therapy and occupational therapy in the form of hippotherapy (on horseback) once a week,” she said. “He has a separate traditional occupational therapy session once a week.”

The cost of those treatments can add up, Braxton-Lieber said, and some are not covered by insurance. Autism Speaks and its affiliates work to mitigate the unknowns of navigating the financial path once a family has been given a diagnosis.

The support these organizations offer is not just financial, however. Braxton-Lieber makes no qualms about the difficulty families can face when they first learn that they and their child will be dealing with this chronic condition.

“[We] mourned, and continue to mourn the typical life we had hoped for and expected for all of us,” she said.

It's a life filled with questions, concerns and fears.

But also in this life she has -- one entirely different from the life that she expected -- there is Ethan, 8, “A very sweet child” who, recently, and for the first time, called Braxton-Lieber "mom."