When doubts linger

This column appeared in the Tri-Valley Herald on May 26, 2009.

When Kevin Kojimi was a baby and breastfeeding, he never looked into his mother’s eyes.

“Even as a new mom, I knew something was wrong,” said Pleasanton’s Julie Kojimi. “When I lowered him into the bathtub, his back would arch so much his toes would almost touch his head in fear.”

Though several healthcare professionals reassured Kojimi and her husband that their boy was healthy, doubts lingered.

When her son turned two, Kojimi asked the guests to whisper the Happy Birthday song to Kevin, but even the whispers were too loud for him.

“Every instinct in my body said something wasn’t right,” Kojimi said.

Then, soon after turning two, Kevin was diagnosed with autism.

Kojimi went into “research mode” to explore every option to help her son, and discovered Happy Talkers and the School of Imagination.

“They taught Kevin there was a cause and effect to language,” said Kojimi, something many children with autism don’t intuitively understand. “The individual attention provided by the school far exceeds the services of your typical preschool,” she said.

Today, Kevin is 8 and has mainstreamed into the Pleasanton school district. His mom has a message for parents who wonder if their children are suffering from a developmental disability: trust your instinct and seek assistance from experts.

In fact, on Saturday, May 30, the School of Imagination and Child Care Links are bringing together over 50 specialists in child development, pediatrics, speech pathology, occupational therapy, audiology and psychology to offer free screening, assistance, and immediate referrals to agencies to any Bay Area parents who are concerned that their children may be suffering from autism or similar disabilities.

Called the “Happy Talkers Community Outreach Fair,” the event is the most comprehensive workshop in the history of the Bay Area addressing developmental delay and autism early intervention.

Founded in 2000 by Charlene and Mitch Sigman, Happy Talkers has served more than 3,000 children with speech delays, developmental disabilities and autism. The program provides individualized or classroom speech and occupational therapies for any student.

Charlene Sigman notes that studies by the Centers for Disease Control show autism is detectable in one out of 150 children, yet many children are not diagnosed and opportunities for early intervention are often missed. In California alone, the number of children diagnosed with autism has increased by 400 percent since 1994.

According to Sigman, early screening and diagnosis for children between 18 months and three years are critical because intervention therapies during this brief window of time can help kids achieve key developmental milestones.

“The diagnosis is the beginning,” said Kojimi. “Early intervention opens up all kinds of possibilities for the future.”

The free screenings offered on May 30 will take place between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 7625 Ridgeline Drive at the Schaefer Ranch Model Homes in Dublin, near the future site of the School of Imagination.

To register or learn more about this event, call (877) 543-7852 or visit www.schoolofimagination.org/outreach.

Lessons on the Lam

This column was published in the Tri-Valley Herald and Valley Times in March 2009.

When David Lair was 16, he felt angry and misunderstood. So he ran away from home.

“I started from my house one evening in San Ramon on a bike with a flat tire,” said Lair, who is now 21 and smiled as he reminisced about the almost amusing mishaps of his three-day adventure.

Lair rode toward Pleasanton, though he didn't really know what direction he was riding. When he arrived in Dublin after 10 p.m, Lair spotted a bus and decided this would make for an easier getaway, so he rode hard to try to catch it.

“It drove off and didn’t think twice about stopping for me,” he said.

When another bus finally came along, Lair hitched a ride to Livermore, but only because the driver took pity on the boy since the bus was going out of service.

Soon a tired and hungry Lair was sitting at the corner of Jack London and Kitty Hawk in Livermore. He called his ex-girlfriend to come get him. As he waited, two friendly fellows about 19 years old came along.

They robbed him at knifepoint.

“I pulled out the $8 and odd cents I had, and proved I had nothing more by emptying my pockets,” he said.

The robbers walked away with Lair’s money and his cell phone to deter a call to the police.

Soon Lair’s ex-girlfriend (we’ll call her Betsy) picked up the boy in her dad’s Mercedes, which she took without her dad’s knowledge. “She was technically my ex-girlfriend at that moment, but she would become my girlfriend in a few days,” Lair said.

When the two got to Betsy’s house, she snuck him into her room where they looked at pictures and talked about old times. In the morning, as Lair hid in the attic, his mother called to ask if the family had seen her son.

“Betsy covered for me,” he said, “and her sister also helped my escape.”

Betsy’s sister told Lair about a garage in Livermore that housed an old car with a dead engine where he could sleep for a few days until he determined the next leg of his journey.

"My knowledge of Livermore was almost non-existent,” Lair said, “so I ended up walking for three hours in the blazing sun before I reached my destination.”

Lair slept successfully that night in the car, but woke up starving and still without money. In lieu of food, he accepted a cigarette from a friend of Betsy’s sister who knew Lair was in the garage.
An infrequent smoker, the 16-year-old Lair passed out after a few puffs and cut the top of his head as he fell to the ground.

“I must have tried to get up because on the way down for the second time, I cut open my eyebrow,” he said.

Eventually, Lair was given $20 for food, which he purchased at a gas station where he met a man of Asian decent who spoke in broken English. The man noted Lair’s condition, shared a story about being beaten up once, and offered the boy a bandaid.

Lair’s adventure then took him to a school where he blended in with students and hung out with a friend. He also made a call and managed to get back together with Betsy.

After three days, Lair had enough. He called home. “My mother picked me up within 30 minutes,” he said.

Today, Lair is content with his life and is nothing like the confused and aimless boy he was back then. “It seems we all go through rebellious periods in our adolescent life,” he said. “That experience taught me several lessons and helped shape the person I am today.”

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