Mashiah Vaughn understands the reason why each woman at the Woman 2 Warrior 5k will be there, racing around an obstacle course to raise money for Easter Seals kids camps. But until now, the model and entrepreneur had never spoken about it publicly.
Her son, Ronin, was diagnosed on the autism spectrum a year and a half ago, at age four. Vaughn was devastated. She worried her son would have trouble making friends. Or worse, would retreat into a world she wasnt a part of. That night she went home and held her son for hours.
She had been a mom for a long time already, having an older son as well, but had never faced the challenges of raising a child with a disability.
She poured over books on the subject and put work on hold to ensure her son had access to the best in early intervention therapies. She cancelled the TV show she was working on, Dussault Inc., and began splitting her time between Vancouver and Malta, where a private clinic specialized in the treatment of autism spectrum disorders is based.
And then, four days ago, she got the news she had almost been afraid to hope for.
The cognitive, behavioral and speech therapies had worked her son was no longer at the low end of the autism spectrum; he had dropped off it completely.
Not every parent gets to rejoice in that result, however; Vaughn knows she was blessed to be able to afford the route she took with Ronin. And not every childhood disability can be mitigated with professional intervention, daily therapy and unconditional love.
Thats where the BC Lions Society for Children with Disabilities, which runs the Easter Seals special needs camps and Easter Seals houses, comes in. The non-profit relies solely on public donations to continue their work, providing low-cost housing for families visiting for medical treatment, and camp experiences for kids.
Easter Seals are also the only free local camps created for children, like Ronin, with a wide range of abilities and needs.
Woman 2 Warrior challenges you to step out of your comfort zone and onto the empowering women's-only course. Five kilometres of track and trails, and 12 obstacles (with easy and difficult options) to remind you that nothing comes easy, especially for children with disabilities.
So, while Mashiah Vaughn is the face of all the strong, determined racers at the Sept. 21 fundraiser, she is also the face of every mother there, who just wants to keep childhood an exciting and accessible place for the 900 kids from BC and the Yukon who will now be able go to camp.
You can register for the event by clicking here.
UPDATE:
Ms. Vaughn was initially hesitant to discuss her very private journey with Ronin. After the first interview however, which touched on it, she put her experience down in an email, which we have reprinted with her permission in full below:
"I noticed my son was not reaching his milestones as quickly as other children his age around three. I grew concerned; for example, his speech was behind and he was missing a number of social skills.
I met with his paediatrician she had assured me on many occasions he was okay, not to worryI just kept going back in and pestering her, saying, 'Something isn't right, is there anything I can do to help his speech?' He had some digestive issues and throat problems, as well. Any time he was sick, his throat would swell and he would be rushed into children's hospital.
I spent the first two years of his life alone with him in emergency rooms.
His doctor agreed to help me set up testing. First was hearing he passed wonderfully. Second was speech and he had some delays.
We were set up with North Shore Family Services to help him with his speech. That was helpful, but I still felt he suffered from some delays with regards to social skills. I would pick him up from preschool at four and notice he was off in his own world playing by himself, or with sticks not socializing.
The teachers felt he was okay because he still had such great imagination skills, but something in my gut kept pressing that this wasn't right. I read books on Asperger syndrome: signs, warnings etc
When I was reading, some of these warnings some rang true he was sensitive to light, loud noises, when he was a baby he was mesmerized by spinning objects like fans and didn't want to be hugged sometimes.
I immediately pressed my doctor again for an assessment and she put me on the waiting list for Sunny Hill Hospital. I thought, I can't wait a year to get him in, he's already four and will miss the advantage of early intervention therapy.
I had read you must start working with autistic children as soon as possible before six, so they can catch the wave and get fully caught upI opted out of the waiting list, and thank God we were blessed enough to be able to afford the private clinic. He was assessed two weeks later and diagnosed as high-functioning autism.
He did score just under the cut off, but close enough to need the extra help. They also called it PDNOS Personality Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. I was a wreck for a week during the testing; I knew that whatever the results were he was still my amazing little angel. I didn't want to change a thing about him, I just wanted him to have the best chance at life. Socializing is the most important tool he needed that I felt he was missing.
The day we went in to hear the results I thought, 'I'm okay I can take it this. I'll be fine.' Well, I wasn't. I heard the doctor say it to me and, for a moment, everything as I knew it stopped. All I heard was dead silence I could see the doctor talking but couldn't hear what was coming out of his mouth.
My worst fear was now a reality and all I could think was, I'll help you. Ronin. Mommy will be here we will get through this as the tears streamed down my face.
We left I went home and cuddled Ronin for what it seemed like hours. I put him to bed and went straight to work on enrolling him in therapies: play therapy, OT Speech, anything that could help.
Its been a year and a half since the diagnosis, and I'm happy to say he caught the wave from the early intervention.
He was just reassessed and is no longer on the spectrum, or even near the score of being close to it. This has been a very busy year and a half, but all my focus has been on him and it has paid off.
All a mother wants for her child is to be happy healthy accepted loved. Ronin will always have his little quirks, but as long as he is able to communicate and have friends and have positive loving relationships, he will be a very successful little boy.
He has successfully completed kindergarten and is going into grade one. He loves tennis (like mom), mini golf, polo, soccer, baseball, and all his friends. He's now a little over social but you wont hear me complaining!
What I can say to moms going through this: Hang in there. There are so many therapies, you just need to find the right one that suits your child. I can't stress early intervention enough. If something doesn't feel right it probably isn't; trust your mommy gut feeling. You are your child's advocate. No one will fight harder for them but you yourself. Also I cant stress enough parents educating themselves on cognitive behaviour etc.
I'd like to thank Wonder Kids, Friend 2 Friend and the Able Clinic for all your help with my sweet boy."
