Presentation - Graduating from High School
July 2010
By Jeremy Sicile-Kira
It is a lot easier said than done when I say I graduated from high school. It took some real hard

My success is due to the many years of learning and trying to understand what the world is
made of. Gradually over the years I learned to make sense of all things around me. Now, I want
to help others. This is the story of my success.

My mom saved me from a life of despair. Her attitude is the key to my success. She made me feel like I could be a success no matter my challenges. Grateful believer of hard work, my mom did not wait for services or just think others could teach me better. Mom tried many things but not one treatment or therapy alone is the reason for my success, but rather the combination of many.

Basically, if it was not for my nice mom and great teachers, my life would not be worth living.
They believed in me and that has made the biggest impact - more than the type of teaching
methods used. My education has beenvaried between home schooling, classrooms for the
severely handicapped, and general education classes. My mom took me out of classrooms
when there was neglect or abuse.

I was not able to move very much when I was a baby. The reality is that I was stuck in my
body. Mom got me a great physical therapist and made me nicely practice all the time how to
standup, sit down and move around.

It was hard to use any of my senses, but the hardest part was and still is to use them at the
same time. It is hard to see something and try to listen at the same time. It really required a lot
of effort to figure out strategies to deal with this challenge. For example, holding a book and
flipping through the pages makes it easier to focus instead of looking at where the noise is
coming from.

Little by little my nice mom gave me the tools to recognize that everything had meaning. Mom
read to me often and made me understand the connection between words and images and
sound. My favorite part of the day was when mom would take my great books and read to me.

hard copy of the same letter. Before that I could not see the whole letter, only the little dots
that made up the print of the letter. I had auditory integration therapy to help me learn how to
listen. It helped me to hear and process what I was hearing.

Once when I was little and not able to move by myself, my mom tried to help me by moving my
arms to request items I wanted, for example, to reach for juice or milk. Then, she helped me
learn to point to yes and no. It was like giving me the help I needed for initiating movement.
Then she taught me how to spell. One day I surprised my family by spelling the word "fireplace"
when they where looking for the house keys. I had taken the keys and thrown them into the
fireplace, but no one had seen me do that. The best real triumph of my life is when my mom
greatly understood that I was capable of learning. That moment was when I didn't try to get
just my needs met, but I told her where the keys where.

Nice mom frankly did not stop trying to find techniques. The best mom did was try Applied Behavior Analysis and in this way she reached me. At first it was hard, then it got easier and frankly boring.

Later, it was RPM that really opened up a world of possibilities for me. Rapid Prompting
Method is a way to teach academics that leads to communication through typing. My mom
frankly did not try to treat me differently than she would have if I had been neurotypical, but
she talked to me as if I understood everything. From pointing to pictures, later to yes and no
questions, progressing to pointing to letters, I learned to type, and became free. Now I believe I
can do anything.

Because I know that it can happen to others, I need to write about terrible things that
happened to me. For example, my mom nicely tried to find a good camp for me but I can tell
that just because a place is supposedly well-organized and staffed, does not mean your child is
safe. Kindly, I believe that most teachers and aides mean well, but I have also been in situations
at schools where I have been neglected, emotionally abused, or accidently hurt by untrained
staff.

When I attended Torrey Pines High School, I was placed in the Severely Handicapped Special
Education classroom. This is where I met my favorite teacher, Mr. Alan Gustafson, who after
some time with me was convinced I was "in there somewhere" as he told me. He was
determined to find a way for me to communicate with him, and he eventually did after learning
how I used RPM to learn at home with my mom.

My next step came when I told my mom I was ready to challenge myself and take mainstream
classes. This was hard because I had to do homework with my aides using only one finger to
type which can take a long time. The Litewriter came around the same time and it was cool
because I kind of had a voice with it and could talk to my classmates and my teachers.

Therapies played a big role throughout high school too. Occupational Therapy, Vision Therapy, Neuromusic Therapy and even Speech Therapy with Dr. Palmer helped me better many aspects of my life in order to do better in school. Like learning to self-regulate helped me stay in class longer, even though I would still need breaks sometimes.

My nice mom fearlessly gave the impression that I could very much be anything I chose. My dreams are to become a writer and speaker. My need to earn money is really a motivation. I want to tell people about autism as well.

The important things to my success as a young adult is I learned to understand my need for
breaks and accommodations and how to ask for them. Speaking up for myself was hard to
learn but is necessary for survival as an adult. Also learning to control my body and moments of
overwhelm is difficult and I work on that a lot. Nicely I get mad at my mom sometimes because
she makes me follow through with what I tell her I want to do. But basically, that is how I have
learned to be more in control of my life and how I have realized that I have to work hard to
make my dreams come true.

Jeremy Sicile-Kira was highlighted in the award-winning MTV True Life episode I Have
Autism as well as inAutism Life Skills (Penguin), which was written by his mother, Chantal
Sicile-Kira. Jeremy graduated from high school with a full academic diploma in
June 2010 and gave a commencement speech
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8cEtand01w). Jeremy attends Mira Costa College. Visit