Bellevue organization working wonders for children with disabilities

It’s the diagnosis no parent wants. It’s followed by shock, grief, anger, and certainly helplessness despite how common it is.

As the numbers stand today, one in every 68 children in the U.S. is on the Autism spectrum. Parents are often left on their own to find treatments and therapy, but it doesn’t have to be that way — not here.

The organization Kindering is working wonders for children with disabilities. Nobody knows that better than Diane Demopulos.

“The hard part with autism is that there’s horrible stress and fear because you don’t know how disabled your child is going to be,” Demopulos said. “You learn to live each day as it comes and not to look too far into the future. You can’t go too far down that road.”

Demopulos is one of those warrior parents who wears the diagnosis of Autism for her son like armor; shielding him from what the disorder might do.

“I was pretty shocked, actually. I was expecting a speech delay but I was not expecting global delays which is what I was told. So I was pretty devastated,” Demopulos said.

Her son, Xander, was not even 2 when Diane learned he’d need every therapy they could find.

“I went into the parking lot and cried in the car. I cried the whole way home,” Demopulos said.

The shock was short lived. Demopulos is a nurse practitioner and knew the key to Autism treatment is early intervention. Xander, at this point, was 18 months and the clock was ticking.

Thanks to the suggestion of a pediatrician, Demopulos was referred to an unassuming building tucked away in Bellevue. It’s at Kindering that Xander would get that time back.

Mimi Siegel is Kindering’s Executive Director and remembers Xander as a delightful toddler.

“A charming, charming young man with spirit and spunk and creativity. Xander was part of our cubs program,” Siegel said.

Kindering was created by five moms back in the early 60’s whose children with disabilities were barred from attending school. They knew that was wrong, which made them ahead of their time. But that’s how Kindering came to be and today it treats 4,000 children a year for a variety of disabilities — autism included.

“Birth to three is the most critical window for early intervention. Eighty-five percent of a child’s brain grows before the age of three and so we want to make sure we do not miss that window of opportunity and we will do whatever it takes,” Siegel said.

They wrap a team of specialists around each child to give them physical and speech therapy, home visits, advocacy at school and even feeding lessons.

If a family can’t pay in full, the organization will find a way for them to help pay the rest. It sounds too good to be true. And it almost was if it wasn’t for the proof Demopulos had right in front of her eyes as Xander started his very first Kindering class.

“There’s this little room that is connected by … it’s really a one-way mirror. The kids can’t really see in but you can watch what’s going on in the classroom. It was fascinating. On more than one occasion it would move me to tears because I realized that I had achieved the best that there was. There was nothing better out there. I couldn’t have hired that kind of a situation and gotten anything better,” Demopulos said.

Xander hit milestone after milestone and even said his first word.

“His first word was ‘mama’ and it was right around the time of graduation from Kindering,” Demopulous remembers calling it a miracle.

Xander is now 15-years-old and listened intently as his mother told his story. Some of which he had never heard.

“I think what stood out the most is mom explaining how happy she was with me. How successful she thinks I’m going to be in the future,” Xander said.

Xander loves school, too. Nearly 50 percent of the kids who go through their program don’t require special education in public schools. Kindering says, according to one school district, that saves them $51,000 dollars a year per kid.

“School is great! I’m having a lot of fun. I have a lot of social friends. I talk to them a lot. I talk to my teachers a lot too, they’re really nice. I try to think it … I try to be logical with my friendships. really think ‘okay, is this person really sincere or are they just tricking me?'” Xander said.

Friendships can be hard to navigate when you have Autism but Xander told me he developed his own method. He’s a big fan of the reality show Survivor.

“Survivor is just a TV show where there are people competing, where there’s people with strategy and part of why I like it is because there’s social cues and I can kind of learn from that a little bit. I imagine everything like Survivor, I imagine every… my tennis match. I imagine ‘okay what’s the most logical move to make? What’s the most logical place to hit the ball?'” Xander said.

To see him today and think about how far he’s come from that speechless little boy, Xander’s mom says she owes a lot to Kindering.

“He is an ‘A’ student, his teachers love him, he’s incredibly talented as an artist and he’s also got a great imagination. Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done without Kindering,” Demopulos said.

Kindering also has a location in Bothell that offers the same services.

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