Donna Hamm places a flower on the lapel of her son, Zach, as he prepares to go to his senior prom. Hamm recently wrote an inspiring story of her life in raising an autistic child.

Hamm shares experiences in raising her autistic son, Zach

In 1986, when Donna and Randy Hamm welcomed a newborn son into their lives, they, like all first-time parents, were faced with the unknowns of the joys and trials that they would face in the coming years. One of the situations they faced when Zach was 4-years-old was learning their son was autistic. His mother stated that going through denial, anger, and grief were “so hard to get through. But I knew I had to accept the word ‘autism’ in order to help him. So I got busy learning all that I could.”

According to Hamm, her older son was the first person in the Alleghany County School System to be labeled as autistic. She had never heard the word before. According to the Autism Society of North Carolina, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) refers to a group of developmental disabilities that affect a person’s ability to understand what they see, hear, and otherwise sense...It is a brain disorder that impacts communication, social interaction, and behavior. Individuals with ASD typically have difficulty understanding verbal and nonverbal communication, and learning appropriate ways of relating to other people, objects and events. No two people with ASD are the same. As its name implies, ASD affects individuals differently and with varying degrees of severity. Additionally, ASD is often found in combination with other disabilities. Hamm stated in 1990, her family experienced what it was like to go “through the newness of autism.”

“It’s not like it is today.”

Get the rest of this article in this week's issue of the Alleghany News! Back