Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Goodwin.
Hi Kelly, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Thank you for for reaching out to me to share my story. It all started at the age of 30. I gave birth to my 2nd child–Tristan. My son was born unexpectedly at 32 weeks and was diagnosed with autism at the age of four. I had attempted to get him diagnosed by the State of VA at the age of two as he had speech regression and showed many other signs of autism. It is genetic in my family and so an assessment was even more imperative. I spent a lot of time with him as a stay-at-home parent, following his lead with activities and building communication. Tristan started speaking at 3 years old and taught himself the Russian & French alphabet by the age of 4. Tristan was extremely smart, so I decided to enroll him in different part time PK programs to help build social skills. When it was time for him to start K-grade within the public school system, he was well-adjusted and didn’t need any services. However, after 1 year in public school, his dad and I decided to transfer him to a private mainstream school as he had so much anxiety attending public school. We thought a smaller school and classroom size would be most beneficial for him.
Then in 2016, at the age of 36, I gave birth to my little girl Emily. By the age of 18 months old, she had been referred to Texas Children’s for an autism assessment. She, too, was born premature and had experienced speech regression like her brother. Speech regression is a huge indicator for autism. Emily was diagnosed at the age of 2 with autism.
As Emily turned 2, it hit me, what if I could help others with autism. What if this is something that I have an innate ability to do. I had the personal experience, some educational experience, but I was lacking professional work experience. I noticed one day that a lot of families with autistic children were struggling in Baytown. They were not only struggling emotionally but also financially because the gold standard treatment for autism is Applied Behavioral Therapy. ABA therapy is not covered by all insurance companies and Medicaid isn’t always accepted by clinics. I decided to create an autism support group with the help of Trinity Episcopal Church in Baytown. We held a few in-person meetings for parents and 2 of the local school behavior specialists volunteered to provide the much-needed information to parents.
When Covid hit, I decided to move the group to Facebook so people still had the opportunity to interact with one another. It also gave me an opportunity to effectively share resources online. Fast forward, I managed to network the city. We now have many families in the group; along with many organizations and people to help provide support, such as Baytown Blue Santa, Lee College counselor, Family-to Family Network in Houston, Director of Autism Society of TX, Baylor University researchers, ABA therapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, local Judge, TX workforce, neurologist etc.
We are currently working with the Autism Society of Texas to become a partnership group due to the many benefits that they can offer the community at this time. K-leigh Shaw Villanueva (Lee College) and I have teamed up to help run the most productive group that we can. K-leigh’s focus is mostly on bridging the gap that occurs after someone graduates high school due to the decline in services.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Thankfully, it has been a smooth road. The struggles are not directly related to the running of the autism support group. The community is very generous and supportive when it comes to our ASD children. Albeit, the more available funding would allow for us to serve the families more affectively and efficiently.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
This school year I’m working as a life skills teacher in an elementary self-contained classroom. Our biggest responsibility is preparing a child for life beyond the classroom. Whilst, we still have a responsibility to provide each child an individualized curriculum, our focus is on incorporating personal life skills into our daily schedule.
The teaching field has opened the doors to gain professional experience working with the autistic population in various special education settings. My goal was to experience what special education was like as an employee rather than as my experience as a parent. I’ve found that special educators are exhausted, that IEP’s take hours to complete whilst trying to instruct a class, and sometimes there isn’t enough administrative support for teachers. I also found that autistic individuals experience burnout. Autistic students are expected to “push” through, leading to an increase in negative behaviors, as well as a rise in anxiety and depression. The special education system needs to be reassessed and improved for the special needs population and for teacher’s well being.
In Baytown, I am known for running the autism support group, organizing events for the local families, providing other forms of support, and networking within the community. I am most proud of my ability to have networked the community and event plan. These are two skills I didn’t know I had but seem to come naturally. I also take pride in how the families have shown trust towards me to help them.
What sets me apart…I am an immigrant of the United States. I moved here from England 20 years ago. I have an authoritative personality, both as a parent and teacher. I come from a country that instills mostly liberal views as well as being open-mindedness, showing acceptance, compassion, and love for all. The UK is multi-cultural, and we embrace it. I’ve also been told by friends in the past that I am a very diplomatic person.
I believe in individual social responsibility. Society would benefit if we were all to take some time to improve it.
Growing up, I was raised around so many different charitable organizations. I knew what charity and compassion was at such a young age. I started sponsoring two children, one in Africa and the other in Romania, whilst still in secondary school (high school) with my pocket money. Being a humanitarian has always been very important to me. It is at the core of who I am. I remember watching advertisements for UNICEF as a child and thinking how I would love to be one of their volunteers. That came true as I’m an active UNICEF volunteer.
What are your plans for the future?
I’m currently attending the University of Texas fast track master’s program in special education –autism track (undergraduate being in psychology). After graduation, I will be applying to do a Ph.D. in psychology as my goal is to become a psychologist and serve autistic individuals. It is a specialized area that is in-need. I will also continue my work with UNICEF. I love to serve others and it provides an avenue to keep up-to-date on issues pertaining to human rights for children.
When the autism support group partnership with the Autism Society of Texas becomes official, I will be able to provide more support to the local families and increase the number of events, etc. We already participate in an annual Easter egg hunt at Lee College, help with Back-to-School supplies, gently used clothes, and during the Christmas period we help with groceries and gifts for those families in need.
We would also love the opportunity to help more low-income families who financially struggle, especially when having to pay for different therapies for their autistic child. We will continue working with Baytown Blue Santa as they’ve been extremely supportive from beginning when it comes to our autistic community.
As for changes, next year I hope to move into more of an administrative position outside of public school system. I would love to continue my work in the areas of autism, education, and human rights. Ideally, I would like the opportunity to work with others to revolutionize the public school education system for autistic children.
Contact:
- Email: Kellyagoodwin80@gmail.com
- LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/kelly-
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Image Credits
Danny Nguyễn Photography
