A Man's Autistic Silence Broken after 2 Decades…with an iPad

Aimee Herd : Jul 16, 2013
Emily Le Coz – Clarion Ledger, USA Today

"Presume they're absorbing everything. Expose them to the world, and never give up. He was 20 years old when his big breakthrough came. It can happen."

(Jackson, MS)—Pam and Donald Dollar's only son, Watson, seemed perfectly normal, until just after his second birthday—a scenario all too common for families that deal with autism.

The usually developing toddler became more and more withdrawn and agitated, and communication skills quickly diminished until only a few words remained.

But upon Watson's diagnosis of Autism in 1993, his parents did not give up.

Instead, they "bombarded Watson with therapy and enrolled him in Magnolia Speech School in Jackson. They enlisted the best doctors and attended the latest autism conferences. They did everything they could to loosen autism's grip, but it wouldn't let go," said the USA Today report.

But as their boy continued to become increasingly isolated, they all but gave up hope, wondering if he was at all inside the mostly blank shell he had become.

And then Pam Dollar bought an iPad.

One morning, when a thirsty Watson had picked up his mother's water bottle to drink, not knowing she'd been ill, Pam had quickly snatched it from him so he wouldn't get her germs.

She could see it would be the start of major agitation and a "full melt-down" if she couldn't somehow make her son understand it was out of concern for him that she pulled the bottle away.

Knowing Watson could read, Pam attempted something new, and grabbing her iPad, she typed, "Mom is sick, when someone is sick they have germs, germs can make you…"

At this point, Watson then took his mother's hand and finished her sentence: "sick," he typed.

It was their first real interaction and communication, and Pam considered it a major breakthrough.

According to the article, Pam then decided to try to extend the conversation. She asked Watson verbally, "Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

Her now adult son took the iPad and typed, "I love you Mom. Very much."

After decades, the door was finally open again, with the help of an iPad keyboard.

Pam Dollar notes that her son's experience proves how important it is to continue to educate a child with autism, despite their limitations.

"Presume competence," she says. "Presume they're absorbing everything. Expose them to the world, and never give up. He was 20 years old when his big breakthrough came. It can happen."

Read this fascinating report by Emily Le Coz of the Clarion Ledger on USA Today about just how much Watson understood throughout the entire time that communication was lost, and he didn't even seem to be "in there" at all.