It can be difficult to raise a child with autism since it calls for a lot of compassion and patience to figure out how to best support your child. As they learn to accommodate their child’s special requirements and manner of engaging with the outside world, parents of autistic children undoubtedly experience a learning curve of their own. However, parents frequently look to services for assistance. And no assistance is better than a dog’s.
Dogs are excellent for helping people with autism deal with life’s obstacles. They are compassionate animals that have a great deal of patience and understanding. They are the ideal friends for anyone who feels excluded or misunderstood. When Joey, a young boy, was around 7 years old, he received his initial diagnosis of high-functioning Asperger’s. Amanda, his mother, remembered the process leading up to his diagnosis. Joey’s mother described how she first realized anything was wrong when he was about 3-years-old because he showed a stronger need to be alone himself than other children his age did. Due to his autism, Joey remembered that it was difficult for him to be social and establish friends when he was younger. He spent a lot of his childhood alone as a result. The youngster then asked his mother if he may have a dog.
Amanda approved. But she didn’t discover the ideal friend for Joey until the day after Thanksgiving when she stumbled upon a Facebook post from Best Friends Animal Shelter. Amanda had spotted Roxy the pit bull with a blue nose’s post. The mother and boy paid her a visit to the shelter. It appeared as though Roxy and Joey had been long-lost pals when they first met. As Amanda recalled, Roxy strolled right past everyone else and sat down in Joey’s lap, acting as if nothing else existed in the world but him. Right there and then, it seemed very clear that she was meant to become a part of their family.
In the video, Amanda sobbed as she recalled the time she saw her son bond with someone else. It was quite remarkable for her to see when they first met Roxy because, as she said, his autism has made it tough for him to build relationships and have those types of unique bonding moments. She added that due to the unfavorable media images of pit bulls, she had always been a little hesitant about adopting Roxy.
By adopting Roxy, Amanda and Joey may have given her a second opportunity in life, but Roxy was the one who gave their family a second chance. Roxy’s capacity to overcome obstacles with Joey aided in the development of Amanda and Joey’s mother-son connection. It seemed as though Roxy was the link that allowed this mother and son to bond more effectively despite his autism. The entire experience was, to put it nicely, very emotional. You can watch their family’s journey in the video below: