Imagine not being able to hold or hug your child. For some parents of children with autism, this is their reality.
Some autistic children have sensory issues and reject physical contact.
‘They don’t look in people’s eyes, they won’t hug their parents, and they are hypersensitive to touch and sound,” Dr. Anis Contractor told Daily Mail.
That’s why Shanna Neihaus was so moved when she saw her 5-year-old autistic son Kai in an embrace for the first time thanks to a service dog named Tornado.
“See this moment? I’ve never experienced a moment like this. Yesterday was the first day my 5-year-old autistic son met his new autism service dog, Tornado. We are Americans that live overseas in Japan and have prepared for nearly two years to meet Tornado,” Neihaus said, according to Love What Matters.
Before that day Shanna never saw her son willingly accept an embrace. For her, the simple act of washing, dressing, or cuddling her son is a struggle.
This made making friends difficult for Kai.
“This picture captures the face of a mother who saw her child, who she can’t hug, wash, dress, snuggle and touch freely, lay on his new service dog of his own free will, with a purposeful, unspoken attachment,” shes said. “This is the face of a mom who has seen her son experience countless failed social interactions on the playground in an attempt to have a friend.”
When Kai first spotted Tornado he ran over to the dog at top speed to hug him. She was absolutely taken aback by the connection her son formed with this dog.
He had finally made a friend.
“Any friend. Any kind of connection. She has sat with her son while he has cried at night for months because he has no consistent connections outside of the family, no matter how hard he tries and no matter what he works hard on in his autism therapies,” she explains.
“It doesn’t transfer to the natural occurring world for him. And now she is sitting behind her son silently watching this moment, with the air sucked from her lungs, and no words to say.”
Seeing Kai cozy up to Tornado signaled to Shanna that not only was her son growing but that he was going to be OK.
“It’s worth every fight for services for my son, every diagnosis, every new provider, every dollar spent, every paper filled out, every school meeting, every shed tear, every step forward, every step back, and every wonder of the unknown future,” Shanna said.
Tornado came from Paws 4 Ability. You can see Tornado and Kai’s first meeting in the video below.
“Somehow because of this — because of Tornado — I know everything will be okay. As a mother, I have seen countless challenging and painful moments my son has encountered and cried countless more. Yesterday, however, I cried for a different reason. It is a feeling that is indescribable.”
Shanna’s post ended up going viral on Facebook and was shared more than 300,000 times.
You can learn more about Kai’s story in the video below.
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