‘Always have hope’
Mother of boy with autism releases book about their journey together
Five-year-old Emmett Cormier isn’t shy when strangers come to his house.
Instead, he smiles and charms with his big blue eyes as he curiously follows the new person around, talking mostly about trains.
Emmett is autistic, diagnosed when he was three-and-a-half. His mother, Alex Cormier, has written a book about her personal journey as a parent with an autistic child.
“Every story is entirely different, this is just one. I think that’s why the spectrum is a spectrum, people are here and (over) here,” said Cormier, a stay-at-home mom with two sons who also lives with and cares for her 81-year-old grandfather.
“We (parents of autistic children) are all on our own road and they’re all different but they’re similar. Some of the feelings we all feel are the same. And for me it wasn’t about selling a book, it was about that.”
“Jump with Both Feet: The Encouraging Autism Journey of a Little Boy Named Em” was released in January and Alex self-published the book through Amazon.com, where the book can be bought.
It took Alex about eight months to finish the book, something she was able to do with the support of her husband, who works for Canadian Citizenship and Immigration.
Easy to read, it’s a larger size and looks like a workbook, a choice Alex made because her elderly grandparents had trouble reading the novel form of the book.
“My reasons for doing the book was it was important for me to let fellow parents and family know that there is no such thing as false hope. And to always have hope and do not let it go,” Alex, who has been married for nine years, said.
“Jump with Both Feet” goes through the Cormiers’ early years with Emmett, realizing something was different when at playgroups he didn’t seem to do the same things the other kids were doing.
Emmett started speech therapy at 14-months and his therapist was the first to tell Alex and her husband that Emmett was showing signs of autism.
Put in the All Kids program, now called Nova Scotia Early Childhood Development Intervention Services, Emmett started visits with them when he was two. A year-and-a-half later, Emmett was officially diagnosed with autism.
“I wasn’t extremely educated in autism … I knew people who had children who had it, but it wasn’t there, it wasn’t on my radar,” Alex said.
“My biggest dream is when he’s an adult … he’ll be able to read (the book), when he’s 25, and think, ‘wow —that’s about me.’”
Inside the book, which costs $10 plus shipping and handling (roughly $22, Kindle version is $8), are tips on how to keep your marriage healthy while raising an autistic child, the importance of self-care for the parent and why birthday parties
are difficult for someone on the autism spectrum.
“I would hope (the book) will encourage people to talk about it and help them … to feel they are less alone, although you feel it sometimes. And to build a better support for themselves,” said Alex, who is also a photographer.
“I am fortunate … I have support … but there are people
who are single parents and people who have family that don’t quite understand so this might inspire them to realize they are not alone and there’s another voice out there that they think, ‘Hey, me too.’”
Alex is writing a followup that continues to detail her personal experiences as a parent of a child with autism. The books also highlights some of
the successes and challenges Emmett may face as he grows up. Alex said she might continue to write followup books, detailing the different stages they go through as Emmett matures.
There is nothing about Emmett that Alex would ever change, something that is clearly stated in the book’s preface and various other sections.
It seems Alex views Emmett’s autism as a kind of gift.
“He has taught me the biggest lesson in my life and that is to live outside the box. Colour outside the lines,” she said as Emmett patiently waited for her to go upstairs with him.
“And that extraordinary is better than ordinary.”