Autism Awareness

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The following is a paid podcast. iHeartRadio's hosting of this
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the ideas expressed.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Welcome to the Man in the Arena, where bold conversations,
real challenges, and unstoppable determination takes sector stage. This is
the show that brings you unfiltered insights from leaders, visionaries,
and everyday warriors who refuse to sit on the sidelines.
Join the movement brought to you by Life Fact, the
airway clearance device that has now saved over thirty five

(00:30):
hundred lives in thirty nine countries. Go to lifefac dot
net get the original authentic Life Fact. Use code MIITA
for discounts on protecting those you love. Teddy Roosevelt said
it best. It is not the critical accounts, not the
man who points out how the strong man stumbles. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.

(00:51):
What inspired Arthur Lee protecting his daughter and then the
world's success. Leaves Clues will explore each chapter of author's book,
Sorry Can't just lie and hear from other men and
women in their arenas. Get ready to be inspired. Welcome
to the Man in the arena. I'm Rick Thatcher along
with Arthur Lee. Such an important couple of shows that

(01:14):
we have coming up. It is Autism Awareness months. And
you know we're not policymakers, we're not epidemiologists, right, that's
a big one. We want to talk to the we're
going to be aware, and we want to talk to
folks that are affected, right, affected by autism. Clearly we
know the numbers Arthur off the charts right in recent years.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah, Well, I think the foundation road show being in
the arena is you know, and it is the awareness
and the investigations and the you know what's going on.
It's a good thing, right, Why is this happening? But
in that world it's just numbers. But the premise of
our show is people in the arena, right, there are
people that are dealing with this and are affected by

(01:58):
it and every day. Yeah, and all this investigation, which
is great, it's not going to help them. What is
it that we should do when we face this, when
we see this, right, do we walk away? Do we
say can? Yeah? I don't know what to do. I'm afraid.
I'm afraid I'm going to say or do the wrong thing.
And I think that awkward conversations lead to good outcomes growth.

(02:24):
Get it out and let's figure out what we're supposed
to do. But it wouldn't hurt if we had some
expertise for the public to be better people.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
No doubt, no doubt, and we talk about I mean,
I think about it the same way, and a lot
of times the family will correct me, like, you know, Dad,
that was wrong. Don't say that to that dog owner,
because there's a lot of it that it has to
do with pets. But certainly I would want to know
what makes certainly the person comfortable or uncomfortable.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Maybe that sharing would help us in our public be
able to better support their challenges that they have to
have a group to talk about the frustrations and the
pressure and the loneliness. We'll keep persevering to be the
man in the arena that brings this up to light.

(03:14):
And one of our guests is someone that is kind
of looking at it from a different angle. And from
the thirteen years doing this, I've come across it quite
a bit because choking is more dangerous, But I try
and I come to like with Bow. When I first
met him, I was looking at him and I'm saying
My challenge is to try and understand how he sees

(03:36):
the world. Right, doesn't matter what I see, I have
to try and find out how he sees the world.
And you know what we'll hear from his caregivers and
what they have to deal with exactly. And I do
believe that more education and more support has to be
done for the caregivers and greater understanding of the person

(03:57):
with autism, how they think, what makes them tick. Not
too long ago, I went to a seminar given by
tepa show and it was on dementia. My dad had
to me, but it was the most empathetic view of
things right. So and it always get me because she said,
you know, you go to change them and you kind
of go at them to take their shirt off. They

(04:19):
look at you like you're attacking them. You know, you
want them to move, so you kind of grab them
and why are you grabbing me? So's the brain kind
of deteriorates all these non you wouldn't think much about them.
Moments change and create, you know, a different perception from
their side. So I think that kind of application is
hopefully what we're going to uncover and talk about that.

(04:42):
You know, the challenge of the caregivers and the techniques
that are necessary that we all should be more aware
of and coping.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
And you were a caregiver and you went through it.
I went through it with my mom. Tony Lebate, who's
a frequent guest on the show, was caregiver for your dad.
And I'm reminded you mentioned dementia. Reminded of Jaya Sparrow,
who came on experienced life changing experience taking care of
his grandmother. Continues to run raise money. Yeah, not so much. Well,

(05:10):
certainly for Alzheimer's, but also he's concentrating on the caregiver
because they need so much support. And you know what,
Let's go to our first guest, Rebecca Small.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
Hi, thank you so much for having me tell us
your story. My story is my son was diagnosed at
around fourteen months old. When he was diagnosed, I sort
of went into this full research mode as his caregiver,
trying to absorb everything I could in order to support him.
The biggest thing I've learned is that he's not really

(05:41):
a huge puzzle to be solved. He's this whole person
that at the time especially just communicated a little bit
differently than we were used to, so we had to
adjust routines, expectations, schedules with him. There were the where
he had sensory overload or communication struggles, and we had
amazing therapists to help us through that. Along with that,

(06:03):
you know, there were amazing days two with him and
seeing him light up when he talks, especially now about
his interests, or watching him overcome something that used to
cause him anxiety. It's so wonderful to see for us, and.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
It affected the whole family, I imagine absolutely.

Speaker 4 (06:18):
It was a big change for us as a family
unit to be able to understand him and to sort
of follow through with what we were doing for him,
and to understand that sometimes routines would have to be
explained or have a visual routine, and to get everyone
sort of on board with us.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
What do you find one of the keys to adapting
to understanding his perception in the world, Like, how do
you pick that up?

Speaker 4 (06:45):
We had a lot of therapists that would come to
the house, we'd sit with him, we'd sit with them,
they'd sort of explain to us how we can approach
things with him. He sees the world in a wonderful,
beautiful way. It's just getting down on his level, especially
when he was younger, to understand how he thought and

(07:06):
not put too much pressure on him.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
I understand the being aware of it early, earlier treatment,
earlier intervention, earlier awareness around it can help the outcome.

Speaker 4 (07:15):
Yes, and he was diagnosed again, I said, at fourteen
months old, so we were able to enter early intervention
shortly after. And I do feel having those therapists that
came to the house as BCBA, his ABA therapists, his
speech therapist, his OTS, his tps, they were just life
saving and life altering for us and especially for him.

(07:37):
I do really feel having those early interventions for him
help shape who he is now twelve years later.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
Twelve years yeah, can you tell a little bit about
those specialties.

Speaker 4 (07:48):
I'm curious ABA therapy. They would come into the house
and sort of, I don't know if I'm going to
do with justice, but learn My child was a little
bit different on the autism spectrum, so his issues were more.
He couldn't speak for a long time. He was nonverbal
for the first two and a half three years of

(08:10):
his life, so it was basically seeing how much language
he actually had in him that he couldn't express, so receptively,
he was able to do a lot. He was most
likely reading very early too, but expressively he couldn't speak.
So those therapists really helped guide me to amazing speech
therapists that were able to get him to start to

(08:32):
be able to speak.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
And do you feel there was frustration on his internally?

Speaker 4 (08:37):
Absolutely?

Speaker 3 (08:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (08:39):
Yeah, yes. For him, not being able to communicate efficiently
with us was extremely frustrating for him, and that did
come out in anger a lot, especially shortly around like
two three years old, and even after he had started
being able to express himself vocally, it was still hard
because you still don't have the words when you're a
little kid, whether you're neurodiverse or neurotypical. So for him

(09:03):
it was extremely frustrating for a very long time.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
Is there a path like are there certain ways of
words or compassion that helped grow or kind of connect
the dots between capability and you know, it doesn't matter,
We just need you to feel comfortable communicating. Is there
like a path? Did you saw?

Speaker 4 (09:25):
Because he had such amazing receptive language, we didn't know
how much he actually knew until he was able to
express himself. So when he started talking, he went from
saying one word to giving me three forward sentences within
a couple of weeks. And I didn't get that. Traditional
you know, a little kid, a baby or a toddler

(09:48):
comes up and they start mom and data. I didn't
get that. I got mommy and me the soap.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
And you have other children who are back up.

Speaker 4 (09:56):
No, he's not only his name is Nolan.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Nolan. Now, when you talk about the speech therapist, physical,
maybe occupational, all these different people were talking about caregivers,
at what point is there help for you and the
family for your role as a caregiver, Because it's daunting.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
It is absolutely daunting. We carry everything emotionally a lot
of times, and having a community that understands, or even
someone that sort of listens without judgment, it can mean
so much to caregivers. So reaching out to other families
at the time, I joined a few different groups of
autism parents just so I had other people who sort

(10:36):
of got it, and we would go out to dinner,
we'd meet for coffee, or we'd just talk over the phone,
just to have that level of support, to know you're
not going through it alone. And even though everyone's autism
stories is different, it varies from child to child, it
was nice to know you had someone that would listen
to you and not judge you.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
Well, they got to be able to relate, right. I
don't think it's fair for someone to have any almost
opinions when they're not in the You know, do you
have any advice for people that aren't in the boat,
Like is there a certain things that you've seen that
us You know people out here should know and have

(11:16):
compassion or empathy or understanding on I.

Speaker 4 (11:19):
Think whenever you see a neurodiverse individual, whether it's someone
with autism or another disability, you can look at them
and you could say, oh, you know what, they seem
pretty easy today. They seem like they know what's happening
and everything's good. Just know that the caregivers behind that
and the children behind that have worked very very hard
to get where they are going. And even if you

(11:42):
see people out and know that a new environment like
you're in a supermarket, that could be very challenging for children,
And just to have a little bit of compassion if
you see them struggling, and not to judge or roll
your eyes or anything like that or make any sort
of comments, but you know, uplift people and things like
that is what I strive for. We strive for as

(12:06):
far as.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Accepting well, I think that's so important. And I'm still
intrigued with the challenge of the person with autism coming out,
you know, like the like you said, he was taking
in all this, but think about how frustrating that would be,
you know, and the skills necessary to understand what they're
going through to help them better work in our world

(12:30):
or communicate or whatever. That effort to understand their situation
and expedite its exit is, you know, I think a
gift that needs to be also really work. Dog.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
We're talking with Rebecca Small, Who's son Nolan autistic.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
How's he doing now? I want to know, like give
us an update.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
He's doing excellent right now. He is in seventh grade.
He has friends, He's very social. He has a great
interest in everything that has to do with history and
the government and countries and flags, and he has this
little special interest that he likes to discuss about. He's
an amazing little kid, just full of life and love and.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
Mid the segment about the government's lack of prevention on
patents and FDA regulations will bring Nolan in is our expert.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, Rebecca, as we've heard, as we're heard across the
country on the Man in the Arena, and we welcome
you again for join us. So thankful. But where are
you located.

Speaker 4 (13:33):
We're on Long Island.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Oh fantastic, Rebecca Small, you're listening to Arthur Lee and
Rick Thatcher on the Man in the Arena. We'll be
right back. She started to choke on a piece of candy.

Speaker 5 (13:44):
She wasn't breathing.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
Then Ray reached for the life back and it saved her.

Speaker 5 (13:49):
She could have easily died that day. A life back
saved her life. What I would say is, don't need
a life back and not have it. Have a life back,
and hopefully never need it.

Speaker 6 (14:00):
Recently, the American Red Cross has added anti choking devices
as an option when standard protocol fails or is not feasible.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Go to lifefac dot net or called eight seven seven,
five four three three eight two to two.

Speaker 7 (14:12):
LIFEAC is proud to be at the forefront of innovation
in choking rescue. Recently, the American Red Cross updated its
guidelines to include anti choking devices as an option for
choking emergencies. This life saving update recognizes the importance of
tools like LIFEAC designed to help in traditional methods may
not be feasible or fail. LIFEAC is there when seconds

(14:32):
matter most. Join the thousands of families who trust life Aact.
LIFEAC can make the difference between life and loss. Go
to lifeac dot com to get yours today.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Hi, I'm Marfur, the inventor, founder and CEO of LIFEAC
and a proud father. Did you know Choking is the
fourth leading cause of accidental death. Tragically, one child dies
every five days. Now imagine your child, your spouse, or
someone you love choking. You have only seconds act. It's
a situation no one wants to face, but it can

(15:03):
happen to anyone. That's why I created life back Light
back is a life saving airway clearance device that's already
saved over three thousand lives. It's easy to use, non invasive,
and gives you the power to act when every second counts.
Don't wait until it's too late. Visit lifefact dot net
today and use promo code life to save twenty percent

(15:24):
on your life back home kit. That's lifefact dot net
Promo code Life. Join thousands of families who own life
fact Life BAC can make the difference between life and loss.
Go to lifeback dot Net and get yours today.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Now on iHeartRadio more of the Man in the Arena
the Life Back Radio Show.

Speaker 8 (15:47):
Here again are Arthur Lee and Rick Thatcher.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
We're talking with Rebecca Small, Who's son Nolan autistic.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Now, Rebecca, do you have a life back right?

Speaker 4 (15:56):
We can?

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Okay, I think good answer? Yeah, well yeah, she said no,
I'd been driving out the house one because it is
a have you have it? Was there any sometimes in autism?
I'm not telling you, I'm just what I learned is
you know you have packing, you have hiding. Uh. There
are certain characteristics that can apply or happen in autism

(16:22):
that increases the risk of choking danger? Did you experience
any of those?

Speaker 4 (16:27):
So we did. Nolan is hypersensitive to new foods. He
has a mild case of ar FID, which is avoidant
restrictive food intake disorder, so introducing anything unfamiliar for him
can be very challenging. He's improved definitely with age, but
there were times when his anxiety would get so intense
when he was eating that he would physically struggle to
either swallow, even if it was the food he had

(16:48):
tried before, and we had a few scary moments when
he would start to gag or he would freeze mid bite,
and I could see him start to panic. He hasn't, thankfully,
had any choking incidents, but you know, we've sort of
adjusted meal time for him. We offer seafood during high
stress times, we stay close while he eats. We let

(17:10):
him set the pace, especially when he's trying something new.
But we got the life back not too long ago
because I was worried, you know, God forbid, something did
happen and he did choke trying a new food or
any food. I wanted to be able to ensure that
I was able to help him.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
That's one of my kind of missions. And I've been
blessed to be able to also see some of the
insights into the people with autism. But my main concern
when I first thoughted was they have a high incident
of choking, right And I know that My opinion was
the caregivers have enough on their plate that if I

(17:49):
could take one of those tremendous anxieties a little bit off,
you know, so that they had something and to raise
awareness of the challenge has faced in autism in the
eating environment right like the general public would may not
you know, understand that from a you know, an overview

(18:10):
point of view. So I'm always grateful when I hear
one that you have it and that it has helped
with peace of mind or the ability maybe to work
with him to you know, support his eating challenges. But
overall was to just bring the light that life facts exists,

(18:31):
and if you have someone with autism, it's it's a
pretty good thing to have around.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, it's the people that we're meeting and talking to.
Behind the numbers, you know, you can easily throw out
five thousand accidental choking deaths a year and then until
you put a face on it, or conversely, those blessed
with a yeah, and we're going to be talking to
and he's.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
A magic child too. But you know, the more where
we hey, look if we can take a brick off
the plate, and I'm grateful to do that, and you know,
also allow them to you know, continue their education and
their and their work with their child, no doubt. Does
that make sense, Rebecca, Yes, thank.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
You, thank you for that.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
I'm just trying to do good and I want to
you're doing really good, and I don't like to explore
from the other side. Man, we have to do a
better job of understanding them.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah, the way you describe your approach the bow, I
think it makes perfect sense. So Rebecca Small, we thank
you so much for joining us here on the Man
in the Arena. In your case, the woman is wrong
and we'll have to see at the Hall of Saves
real soon.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
You're listening to Arthur Lee and Rick Thatcher on the
Man in the Arena. We'll be right back after this message.
She started to choke on a piece of candy.

Speaker 5 (19:56):
She wasn't breathing.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
Then Ray reached for the Life Act and saved her.

Speaker 5 (20:01):
She could have easily died that day. A life back
saved her life. What I would say is, don't need
a life back and not have it. Have a life
back and hopefully never need it.

Speaker 6 (20:12):
Recently, the American Red Cross has added anti choking devices
as an option.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
When standard protocol fails or is not feasible.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
Go to life bac dot net or called eight seven
seven five four three three eight two to two.

Speaker 7 (20:23):
Life BAC is proud to be at the forefront of
innovation in choking rescue. Recently, the American Red Cross updated
its guidelines to include anti choking devices as an option
for choking emergencies. This life saving update recognizes the importance
of tools like lifeac designed to help when traditional methods
may not be feasible or fail. LIFEAC is there when

(20:44):
seconds matter most. Join the thousands of families who trust
life BAC. LIFEAC can make the difference between life and loss.
Go to life bac dot com to get yours today.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
Hi, I'm Marfur, the inventor, founder and CEO of life
BAC and a proud father. Did you know choking is
the fourth leading cause of accidental death. Tragically, one child
dies every five days.

Speaker 9 (21:06):
Now.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
Imagine your child, your spouse, or someone you love choking.
You have only seconds to act. It's a situation no
one wants to face, but it can happen to anyone.
That's why I created life back Light back is a
life saving airway clearance device that's already saved over three
thousand lines. It's easy to use, non invasive, and gives
you the power to act when every second counts. Don't

(21:30):
wait until it's too late. Visit lfefac dot net today
and use promo code life to save twenty percent on
your Life Back home kit. That's Lifeact dot net promo
code Life Join thousands of families who own life back.
Life back can make the difference between life and loss.
Go to lifeback dot net and get yours today.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
Now on iHeartRadio, more of the Man in the Arena,
the Life Back Radio Show.

Speaker 8 (21:59):
Here again are Arthur Lee and Rick Thatcher.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
It is Autism Awareness Month and we were just talking
with Rebecca Small and we have another friend of life
Back coming up. She has a lot going on. She's
just I mean, I feel like I know her. I've
only been at Life Like a short time, but I
guess through my time at chop HQ. I feel like
I know the Browns. I feel like I know Bo.

(22:22):
I feel like I know Stacy, and I know one
thing for sure, through your eyes. They're great people. They
are Stacy's awesome and we welcome Stacy Brown.

Speaker 10 (22:32):
For having me. I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
You know what's funny when he was talking about what
like year now over there, year over here that I
went back to the boat trip and you know the
other day saw the video of me and him dancing
on the back and so too and him coming up
at the podium when I was doing my big speech.
But I don't know if you had the first segment.
We're just trying to kind of talk about what you

(22:57):
and I had talked about about your mission and better
understanding the child you're dealing with, and then also the
stress on you, and then also the life back, the
fact that you know, in autism awareness, one of them
is the swallowing dangers and the eating challenges and to
you know, consider protecting yourself with a life back. But Stace,

(23:18):
why don't you give us give us your story quick,
and then we'll chat about your ongoing effort and the
beautiful uh the new project, the new project that you
are doing.

Speaker 10 (23:30):
Yes, yes, I would love to talk all about this,
but in leading up to that, I'd like to start
with spellers. I don't know if you've ever heard of
spelling therapy.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
You realize I am the worst speller in history if
that's what we're.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Talking Have you seen the Facebook post spot.

Speaker 10 (23:48):
I've made mistakes too, and bos looking at me like
I have three heads.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
But sorry about teachers later, some of the teachers are
in contact, very upset with the spelling.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
But on a curve.

Speaker 10 (24:00):
Okay, so both been going to spelling therapy for about
a year and a half now, and what they have
recognized is that the apraxia that a lot of people
with autism or other special needs can have isn't just
speech apraxia, but it's rather than full body apraxia. So
instead of just focusing on that fine motor, which speech

(24:23):
is one of the finest motors, so it's going to
be one of the most challenging, we're focusing on gross
motor and we're having so much success with it. It's crazy.
These are letterboards right here that he uses for therapy.
So we have been able to unlock this with so
many people who have been nonverbal for a long time

(24:43):
or have unreliable speech. This has helped a lot of
people to be able to express their needs, their wants,
their desires, what's wrong, what do you want to eat?
And it's totally been a game changer for us and
so many others.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
That's crazy. How did you find out about it?

Speaker 10 (25:00):
Well? I found it in some mom groups on autism.
There's actually a movie, a documentary made about it. You
can find it. It's called Spellers, and you can find
it on YouTube. There's a book called underestimated that you
can get off of Amazon. And we'll be talking more
about it through our Facebook page on Nested Hope. So
I invite all of your viewers and listeners to come

(25:20):
and check us out. So Bo's been doing this a
lot with his friends. One of his friend's name is Morgan.
She's a ten year old little girl, and I'd like
to talk a little bit about her if I could.
So Morgan started with these three letter boards. Do you
see how they're not the full twenty six letters?

Speaker 2 (25:38):
We are looking at what looks like an enlarge stencil
page and in large. Yeah, basic alphabets stuff.

Speaker 10 (25:48):
Yeah, basic alphabets, Like that's all it is. And it
seems so simple to everyone, and like why do you
need therapy to do it? But there's some training and
like magic involved that they're able to facilitate this. Oh,
there's just so much. Bo was. I homeschool him. So
we're at the table and he's sick of three letter
site words and just done. So I'm like, Okay, we'll
try to work on social skills instead. But when the

(26:10):
spot opened up for us to go that accommodated our schedule,
we went. He's spelling planets, names of planets, like didn't
know that was in there, but they unlocked it.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
Did you see his anxiety come down? Like do you
see that that frustration was inside him? And now he's
less frustrated and more enthusiastic because he has an outlet.

Speaker 10 (26:31):
He is less frustrated and when he does spell something,
he like wiggles his whole body with excitement. He's just like,
you know, proud of himself. Yeah, he's not what I
would consider an open speller yet because he's not actively
grabbing them and hey mom, I you know, and talking
to me yet, but we're getting there. So our friend Morgan,

(26:53):
who was nonverbal, she started with the letterboards, but by
age nine she is like open keyboard, just like you know,
keyboard in front of you. She's able to say things.
So a lot of parents struggle with trying to understand
their children, and Morgan actually finally had this outlet. Morgan
had three wishes to present this knowledge in what she

(27:13):
had gained through spelling to communicate. She wanted to present
it to an audience and she was able to do
that with a local elementary school. Her next was to
have a birthday party with friends, and she had that
this past winter, and her last one was that she
wanted to travel the world. Those are things that she
spelled out openly, no prompting, just as a question was asked.

(27:36):
She also said that I hope to inspire as many
people as possible. This little girl was trapped and she
had an outlet that she wants to just help everyone else,
like she's amazing, but something went wrong. Nobody will know why,
nobody will understand it. But mom took Morgan's life at

(27:57):
ten years old, and then she turned and took her
own life as well. So in talking to the therapists
that absolutely adore her, this idea was born not as
a casual business plan, but like, from this heart wrenching
tragedy that was not supposed to happen in our community,

(28:19):
we want to ensure that no one else feels unsupported
or whatever her mom could have been feeling. Nested hope
came about, and I feel like God himself was like,
open this center and do this. And you know, I'm
talking about it to the therapist and everybody wants in on this.
I have other therapists, I have doctors. They all want in.

(28:41):
They want a part of this because it's it's a
void that been missing. But Nested Hope well, I feel
that if we support the caregiver, they can better support
their family. And sometimes everybody talks about that lack of village.
Even Rebecca said it wanted to find that commaradity with people,
they get it. We're going to be able to find

(29:01):
that at Nested Hope, where every caregiver finds connection, every
individual discover joy through sensory recreation and experiences. My son
bo he has multiple diagnosies and a couple of them
are life threatening. So one of the challenges for me
to be able to step into that village in ways
to either help people or just to get help that

(29:23):
I might need is I can't always find childcare. So
I'm trying to think, like what would Morgan need, what
would her mom need? What do I need in our
community that you know can help this. But like Nested Hope,
parents are going to be able to get that respite
while their love is on site playing in another area.

(29:45):
We're going to offer for the caregivers. It's going to
be a nonprofit. We're going to offer the caregivers workshops,
support groups, community events, just casual relaxing, you know, whatever
they need, We're going to have our suggestion box open
and always taking them just to try to create this
to suit everybody as much as possible.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
I think what you do is you're almost formalizing Rebecca's
dinner group and lunch group, right, but the ability to
take it out of the closet or take the random
hope you meet good people that you can go out
to lunch with while your child is being watched by
someone who on the hands autism right and making it
more of a no brainer. Meaning if I join us

(30:24):
and hope are going to meet parents that are faced
with situation I am, and I'm going to have some
support so I can get a break with someone who
knows what my child is going through, because I think
that may be a huge way problem with being able
to go out with your girlfriend for dinner and talk,
because you can't just get the kid down the block.

(30:45):
You know. That's trying to make a couple of electric
bucks much, which I think is great, but there are
too many challenges that may be faced by that Careever,
they have to be educated and by formulating a group,
and I see it being chapters cross the country, right,
so that they can enjoin that set hope, and those
are the resources that are available. They can go out

(31:06):
to dinner, launch, have coffee, share the challenges that only
they're familiar with, and also have a place where they say, well,
we have X y Z who can watch, who's trained
and educated and familiar with the challenges faced by your child,
so they can you could be safe.

Speaker 10 (31:25):
That's the vision. We want the safety, we want the
parent because in the special needs world, autism, especially even
down syndrome. My son has down synder too. But there's
a very high divorce rate, so a lot of these
families are single families. They don't always have not everyone
can support them.

Speaker 3 (31:44):
Well, I think it kind of ties into the lack
of the ability to share and get outside support and love,
and you know, the frustration and the pressure, right Yeah,
So I think that obviously the horror of the SEU
site brings it to light in the most magnified way,
but it certainly isn't something that you cannot understand. You know.

(32:07):
You host could say there's times where I was done too,
and I know from my experience that there was the
same kind of desire to say I'm done. We have
to find ways to keep going.

Speaker 10 (32:21):
We do we do. And I'm hoping that giving this
space for caregivers of all types of caregivers, that we
can do that. And then on the gym recreation side,
like I it's for all ages, not just children, because
we all are in crisis at some point as caregivers.
I don't care what kind of caregiving you're doing. It's lonely.

(32:42):
It's isolating, really isolating, and it's so stressful, and you
do feel alone. I feel like I've surrounded myself by
a good support group, but I sometimes feel alone. But
like I'm looking, you know, for all ages. I'm looking
for swings that can support up to three hundred and
fifty pounds.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
Did you hear about that. I put a swing in
our local park. It's a wheelchair accessible. You would dig this,
you would dig this. So they were like, well, we
could put it in the back here, and I said, no,
put it right in the middle of the playground. Right.
They need to be in there and we're going in
the flight and that took a little bit of convincing
of light bulb moment to get it to go off.

(33:19):
And they deserve to be out there playing when that's
part of why they want to go swing, And I
think that was my point, and that's why I said, no,
it's got to be right in with the other There
was some cruddy swings. I said, take those, put it there,
and then there's swings there, swings here. We're all playing.
Let's get back, you know, compassion for each other.

Speaker 10 (33:38):
Kids. Yes, there's awareness and we can all be aware
for an and then it goes away.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
Yeah, no, I know, but that's why we go. But
when I was there, when they dedicated the swing, there
was a child on it and he was laughing and smiling,
and I never felt better about persevering to make sure
it happened and that it was in the playground. You know,
it was think about it. They don't get too much.
So he was swinging and he was laughing. He was

(34:05):
having the greatest time right.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
There in the middle of the playground. Yes, or it
should be all wrong.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
Yeah, but that's a simple example of what you're talking
about about, the ability to understand that the group could
go to the playground and have a day. You know,
I hope it can help it anyway, it's.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
Time for a quick break. But Stacy, can you I
hope so too. Look at around more about nested hope. Rick.
This is Arthur and we'll be right back after this message.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
I'm sorry to bother you, but I have thirty seconds
to give you a very important message. My name is
Arthur Lee. I'm the CEO inventor of life Back, a
simple choking rescue device that could save a life in
a choking emergency. We've saved over three thousand lives now,
but we're not there five thousand people you choke to death,
one child every five days. Please consider protecting your family

(34:54):
in a choking emergency with life Back. Go to lifefac
dot net today. Thank you for your time.

Speaker 7 (35:00):
LIFEAC is proud to be at the forefront of innovation
in choking rescue. Recently, the American Red Cross updated its
guidelines to include anti choking devices as an option for
choking emergencies. This life saving update recognizes the importance of
tools like life Act designed to help in traditional methods
may not be feasible or fail. LIFEAC is there when

(35:20):
seconds matter most. Join the thousands of families who trust
Life Act. Life Aact can make the difference between life
and loss. Go to lifeac dot com to get yours today.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
Now on iHeartRadio more of the man in the arena
The Life Back Radio show.

Speaker 8 (35:37):
Here and again are Arthur Lee and Rick Thatcher.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
Arthur's penning a note to himself on his hand, bring milk.
Why wouldn't I. I just got through a course last night
where as a referee, I right on my hand for
the game. I was thinking about getting a tattoo.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
DTP.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Well, it's just says DTP. Talk to parents. Yes, sage advice.
I don't always follow it, but right it there for
a REASONA yes, absolutely, and that's a whole other show,
whole nother show. Oh absolutely. We'll get some footage from
the youth games and it's not just soccer, baseball, basketball,

(36:18):
but whatever. The kids are playing a lot of a
lot of problems, a lot of problem parents. We were
talking with Stacy Brown before the break and we are back.
When I go into the Hall of Saves, and you know,
if I'm doing it, quick gets spun around. For any
particular reason, I always zero went on Bose picture was
both the first time.

Speaker 10 (36:36):
I think he was ninety six the first time, and
I lost count on all of the others, Like it's
almost embarrassing, but this.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
Would give you hope forness that hope. He was ninety six.
We're coming up at four thousand, I know.

Speaker 10 (36:49):
And we just reported another say for him, like, what
was it two or three weeks ago?

Speaker 3 (36:54):
Now, yeah, yeah, Bo was a good customer. Yeah, we
had a chat about it. What he was here. It's lizen, buddy,
you keep getting saved. I need to publicity.

Speaker 10 (37:03):
But he uh appreciate it?

Speaker 3 (37:06):
Well, No, I told her, Beca, you actually brought it
to light and so much when I was visiting and
you were here and Bau was there, and I was
kind of looking at him and really trying to take
into his challenge. You know, how can I help him
come out of that world? How do I understand his

(37:27):
world to be better to him? Right? Because for me,
we can bark at him, but we don't know what
they're faced with. And that's why I was curious when
he started getting the letters down if some of that
horrible frustration would would you know? Because when we were
talking with Rebecca, I said, man, that must be torture, right,

(37:49):
you could take this information and you cannot express yourself.
How frustrating would that be? And to me, that's part
of the education for the public that we can do
a better job understanding, but do thanks you finish on
Nested Hope and just explain a little bit about you
feeling on the importance of life back in the autism community.

Speaker 10 (38:11):
Yes, Nested Hope, we are currently in the process of
getting our five oh one c three building our website.
We're going to need help. This is a community collaboration.
We can't do this by ourselves, so we're going to
be looking for sponsors to get this going and provide
this for our families. You can currently find us on
Facebook under Nested Hope. We have a Facebook page, there's

(38:32):
a group. The page just hit a thousand followers. And
again we just started this.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
I think I was nine hundred and ninety eight, so nice. Yeah,
just almost say but yeah, we'll get we're we'll be
promoting it. And it's not only just the page you
talked earlier too. Things what about caregivers from wall walks
right as Yeah, a physical presence, not just an online website.

(38:58):
You have a physical and it's Ohio.

Speaker 10 (39:00):
It's going to be in Ohio, Yes, near Cleveland.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
Well, I think you're in the flagship stage, you know,
and the education and what works doesn't and the ability
to bring people in, let them play, et cetera, all
those great things. Then we get around the country and
we get it everywhere.

Speaker 10 (39:17):
That's my dream, Like I.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
Always think small, it's just like you know the way
I am. So we'll just take over the entire country.
You get this whole thing going.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
And how much does Morgan play a part in this
whole project? Obviously a large part right her.

Speaker 10 (39:31):
Dream, Morgan is the sole inspiration for this. This little
girl wanted everyone to be able to spell. One of
her things that she her aunt just shared with me.
She openly spelled because she saw his name, who's bo
I want him to come to group, you know. So
she wanted to bring everyone in. She was all about,
you know, just helping and being with others, like especially

(39:54):
now that she can communicate, like she was the light
of her family's eyes, she still is. She's just wonderful.
But like you said, being trapped in these a practic
bodies and your frustration just to share a couple others.
Our friend Marissa is eleven and she's an open speller.
And some of the adults that we have that are spelling,
they were locked up until like Charlie was twenty one,

(40:16):
Dan was twenty three, Talia was twenty five, Edmund was
twenty one, Liz was twenty two, and their parents. Can
you imagine the joy that they feel that they can
have this conversation now. It's just it's been life changing
for so many families.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
A big part of the group, too, is sharing, and
we talked about it the way I saw the concept
that there is things that work that don't work that
can also be shared, and an approach that someone else
is taking brings to you that you now take. And
the same with the emotional support. How you felt that,
And they say I felt that, Here's what I did. Yes,

(40:54):
I can relate. I understand it's not easy. Here's thought
that I did, or read or sleep.

Speaker 10 (41:03):
We also did a lot of intervention therapies, just like
Rebecca did for Nolan in the beginning. And it's interesting
right now because there seems to be the autism world
is very politicized right now. Our FK Junior just said
some things regarding to research and to figure out why
some people like because autism is a spectrum and so

(41:24):
you have your level one to level three and my
family's in the minority. So I'm going to stand behind
the willingness to research, and I don't care who the
messenger is. We need to figure out some stuff because
you know, she said, Nolan's doing great, and I'm so
happy for Nolan, and I'm so happy for all of
our families like that. But in this division that's been

(41:45):
created amongst the community, like there's twenty five percent of
us that need help and a lot of those things
that RFK Junior said, he was kind of more focusing
on that we.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
Should invest in the circumstances any we could do, look
at it. It doesn't matter what you do, yet we
have to understand better. I don't really know much about
it what he's talking about, but my thought is investigating
the increase in it is a good idea. I don't
care what political party you are. The man and women
in the arena are what New Hope addresses that we're here,

(42:20):
I do believe obviously there's the room for on their
investigating the city. Of course, the hsble today that are
in the arena that are dealing in this need emotional
support and sharing of breakthrough ideas and our willingness and
ability to dig and understand them better so we can

(42:41):
help them better. And that's That's what I said. Hope
has hope to do?

Speaker 10 (42:46):
Yes, what we hope to do? That we are amongst
the twenty of twenty four seven care and we all
need to come together and love our children more than
we dislike each other.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
One that's perfect. And I'll tell you what. When you
have you know, a couple hundred thousand nests that hopes
I'm going to give everyone a free life.

Speaker 10 (43:06):
Oh my gosh, that would be amazing.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
And you said that when you repeat that statistic, twenty
five percent are twenty four to seven.

Speaker 10 (43:14):
Twenty five percent of us are nonverbal. They feel we
lack cognitive ability, but I don't think so. I think
it's the full body of praxia. I've never heard the
term coined presume competence until we started spelling. So, like
Rebecca mentioned when you were asking what do you do
when you encounter someone with a disability, the first thing
you should do is presume competence because they're in there.

(43:36):
Whether they you know, transfer that out in acknowledgment or
if they are seem like they're ignoring you, they're there
and every human being should be presumed competence.

Speaker 3 (43:46):
And who knew bo was an excellent dancer.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
I've found you probably could figure it out. But in
comparison to you or I, I think that most people
are competent or well above average when compared to us,
because we lower the bar Lady and Joe, well, Stacey.
I hope this isn't the last time. We thank you
so much for joining.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
You got to keep giving us progress.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
From yes, So stay tuned and oh, I will go
to Nested Hope on the Facebook, on the Instagram and
be aware of this is great the stuff that you're
doing and all in Morgan's memory and for Ball and
for the Browns, and we appreciate you so much and
thank you for joining us today on the Man in
the Arena and we're going to be right back.

Speaker 9 (44:29):
I was in the living room when I heard my
son Carter, who was two.

Speaker 10 (44:32):
At the time.

Speaker 9 (44:34):
I looked over and I saw him grabbing for his face.
I grab a life back. I put the mask on
his face and place push pul the light back dis
laded the ice cube from his airway.

Speaker 10 (44:46):
He started crying, the most amazing sound I've ever heard
in my entire life.

Speaker 9 (44:51):
Please protect your family.

Speaker 10 (44:54):
Get a life back.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
Now on iHeartRadio more of the Man in in the
arena the Life Back Radio show.

Speaker 8 (45:02):
Here again are Arthur Lee and Rick Thatcher.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
I was going to ask both Rebecca and Stacy, and
I was almost afraid to, Like, you have that community
of support. What about going out in the supermart, going
out in public? On average? I would hope that most
people aren't jerks.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
Well, you know what, I think that we may have
happened back, and it is awkward. I'm always some you know,
hedging my words to make I don't want to defend
or hate the wrong thing or hurt someone. But we
probably need to talk more about that. You need to
talk about, you know, some of the encounters and educate
the public. Accidental rudeness is in the book, right.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
I was looking for earlier today when we were talking
about these two shows that we're tapping today. How do
we tie it in? And that's an excellent tie into
the book. Sorry can't just a lie, which, by the way,
is available on life fact dot net go to life.
If you're not prepared with a life fact yourself and
for your family, or you don't have the book, or both,

(46:01):
God forbid, use the code m I t A get
the book, get a Life Fact, or several to protect
those that you love, because the life you save may
be your own. At this stage of our career, fastest
growing podcast in America. Yeah, I can theoretically steal taglines
from some of the more popular items in the country

(46:21):
and get away with it.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
I like it.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
Yeah, we could use the attention.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
Why not?

Speaker 2 (46:29):
So we've been talking. We talked with Rebecca, we talked
with Stacy, and it's National Autism Awareness Month. They get
a whole month.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
Hard job in the readA. Yes, like when we had
to remember we had to talk about prayer and it
was like a little awkward and we said, you know,
what do you pray and how do you and it
was something you don't talk about that. I think that's important.
And Stacy's approaching it because of that horrible circumstance of saying,
we need a group where people can talk. M h.

(46:57):
And it's getting worse, right because we so two kids
on a date. They were both taxing so our ability
to communicate and to talk about difficult things that you
may not want to talk about now being National Autism
Awareness I mean, from the professional standpoint is get a
life back, right, because there is a greater chance I'm

(47:18):
talking and all sorts of potential challenges that's not faced
by other people but in our souls. The ability to
bring things that aren't being talked about, the light right,
the caregiver challenge, the pressure on the caregivers. What the
public can do? What is it that we should do
when we face this, when we see this? Right? Do

(47:40):
we walk away? Do we say? Can you out? I
don't know what to do. I'm afraid. I'm afraid I'm
going to say or do the wrong thing. And I
think that awkward conversations lead to good outcomes growth. Get
it out and let's figure out what we're supposed to do,
how we're supposed to interact. What is you know, what's good?

(48:00):
What's bad? I don't know.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
Yeah, I think one of the greatest.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
I think general compassion and understanding and non accidental rudeness
is the general way. But it wouldn't hurt if we
had some expertise for the public to be better people.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
No doubt, no doubt, And we talk about I mean,
I think about it the same way, and a lot
of times the family will correct me, like, you know, Dad,
that was wrong. Don't say that to that dog owner.
Because there's a lot of it that it has to
do with pets, but certainly I would want to know
what makes certainly the person, what makes Bo comfortable or uncomfortable?

Speaker 3 (48:40):
Carter well, and how do we how do we export
stacy as human right? You know, do we walk by
like what what? Maybe it's a wink or not, or
you know, it's the sting saying I get it, it's okay.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
Wow, Sting reference everybody. Wow, I remember that.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
But maybe that sharing would help us in our public
be able to better support their challenges that they have
to have a group to talk about the frustrations and
the pressure and the loneliness. We'll keep persevering to be
the man in the arena that brings this up to light.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
Yep, because every arena is a little bit different. And
what Stacy said at the end there, because we say
it's Autism Awareness month and there's so much going on
in the community and every community mentioning the politics, it
needs to as in choking, it needs to be removed
because nobody cares. When everything is politics, nothing is.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
That's the lunacy we're facing right now that any format,
even common sense is attacked. But we have to persevere
to get back on track to nonpartisan things, ending choking
eighty A for choking autism awareness, investigating the increases. These
are not political things. These are human things. And you

(50:05):
know we're in such a world. You say, like, we're
all terrified to say the wrong thing. We're gonna get killed,
they're gonna shut us down, and they're gonna hate us.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Meanwhile, some people have no care at all. They just
they'll just go ahead.

Speaker 3 (50:18):
And if progress happens that way. But there is the
need for the gentleness of open discussion. If I make
a mistake and said sorry, it didn't mean that, and
not the crucifying you said something wrong, Now we outside

(50:39):
you and we want you fired and take your building.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
Down, cancel culture.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
But it's it's paralyzing us, it's paralyzing open discussion, it's
paralyzing opinion with an open mind. So we got to
persevere to bring these things to light and talk about
them openly, honestly and fairly.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
And we will continue to do that. On the Man
in the Arena show, Gosh, we're in La Houston, Orlando,
New York and pretty soon more cities, more fun. It's
coming up in March. People like the fastest growing past
in America as measured by Donnie Easley. Yeah, it's what happened.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
Who knew?

Speaker 2 (51:21):
You kind of knew?

Speaker 3 (51:22):
I did you kind of knew when you had this Well,
I thought was this idea. There's a place for discussion
versus a side, right, and the way to do it
isn't you know we're people saying it's talking to people
that are faced with atis. It's not you know, China's
amazing as it's people that are faced with that problem.

(51:43):
This is the people in the arena right and are
telling us what's going on.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
Yeah, clearly with I as the host, not an expert.
That's the beauty and anything. We have no idea what
we're doing perfect. I'm a pylon basically pilot pilot or
a traffic on we haven't measured yet. Yeah, that's what
we're going to get back to that. The head measuring
contest for those listening for the first time early on
in the inception of the Man in the rate of

(52:10):
my skull was measured not once but twice, and I
came out victorious twice. You were pretty confident that your
skull was going to be.

Speaker 3 (52:18):
Going to win. I wish he did, because I would
be bragging.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
Yeah, I had mixed feelings with the results of that.
I was proud. You know, you want to win a content.
You're in the contest, you want to win it. But
then you yeah, not so good.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
But so next week, just to tease, what's coming up
is we're going I want to see slightly miff guy
come back because we talk about we talk about this
a lot, and it's it's coming up in other areas,
which must make you feel a little the more comfort.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
The media, right, and particularly comments by like Brian at
Box and some of the other eight networks bringing to
light the China. Yeah, and once again, this is man
in the Arena. We're talking about, not the politics of
the ramifications reality and I don't know, it gives me
hope that we're finally going to address this and any

(53:13):
Kaiser comment then he said, it's not the sledgehammer and
this is a strategic way.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
My Danny Kaiser. Yeah, oh my goodness. We got to
get him on a show. That's another show Man in
the Arena, the Kaiser in the Arena. I can't wait
for that one. Anyway. We want to thank everyone for
joining us. This is the Man in the arena. We
talk each week, certainly about Life Act, but certainly about
other people in other arenas. So we'll be back next week.
I'm Rick. I'm with Arthur Lee, CEO and ventor of

(53:40):
Life Aact on the Man in the Arena.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
The proceeding was a paid podcast. iHeartRadio's hosting of this
podcast constitutes neither an endorsement of the products offered or
the ideas expressed