08-01-2006, 02:54 PM
Jamie Burke speaks with poetic elegance.
That he can speak at all is a triumph of his own determination, years of intensive and innovative therapy, and access to inclusive classrooms.
Burke, 19, of Westvale, is severely autistic. And until he said his first words at age 12, the realistic fear of his parents was that he would never talk.
"Before that, it was a very dire future," said his mother, Sheree Burke. She said the woman who diagnosed Jamie at age 3 ended the session by saying, "There are group homes."
Instead, he is a Westhill High School graduate about to enter Syracuse University.
Not only does he speak, but he has addressed an international conference in Germany, a therapy training session in England and several seminars around the United States. His story has been filmed by CNN and reported in People and Time magazines and El Pais, Spain's most circulated newspaper.
In September he'll join the Association of Persons with Severe Handicaps in presenting to Congress a public policy statement, "The Right to Communicate."
Having claimed his spot in the community, Burke has a lot to say about the years of silence when nobody knew exactly how smart he was.
"Yes, I understood everything, but people thought I was lost in the reverie of autism," he says. "I screamed at the idiots who treated me like a kid that was invisible."
He can speak short thoughts extemporaneously. For long sentences, he types on a small keyboard or laptop, then says the words out loud.
From syracuse.com
That he can speak at all is a triumph of his own determination, years of intensive and innovative therapy, and access to inclusive classrooms.
Burke, 19, of Westvale, is severely autistic. And until he said his first words at age 12, the realistic fear of his parents was that he would never talk.
"Before that, it was a very dire future," said his mother, Sheree Burke. She said the woman who diagnosed Jamie at age 3 ended the session by saying, "There are group homes."
Instead, he is a Westhill High School graduate about to enter Syracuse University.
Not only does he speak, but he has addressed an international conference in Germany, a therapy training session in England and several seminars around the United States. His story has been filmed by CNN and reported in People and Time magazines and El Pais, Spain's most circulated newspaper.
In September he'll join the Association of Persons with Severe Handicaps in presenting to Congress a public policy statement, "The Right to Communicate."
Having claimed his spot in the community, Burke has a lot to say about the years of silence when nobody knew exactly how smart he was.
"Yes, I understood everything, but people thought I was lost in the reverie of autism," he says. "I screamed at the idiots who treated me like a kid that was invisible."
He can speak short thoughts extemporaneously. For long sentences, he types on a small keyboard or laptop, then says the words out loud.
From syracuse.com