Cooper Cares Spotlight: Tyson Ziegan
Welcome to the Cooper Cares Spotlight! We are excited to share the journeys of other special needs families, written by them, and provide a space for parents, siblings and friends to give a window into their amazing, unique worlds.
This spotlight features our friends, the Ziegan family, and their incredible son Tyson. Tyson’s mom, Alex, attended the same Cincinnati high school as Katie, and they connected and bonded after a mutual friend shared a CRF Instagram post. We hope you enjoy this beautiful piece written by Alex about their amazing family!
My 5-year-old son Tyson is my hero. He is the happiest human I’ve ever known with his zest for life unmatched and inspiring. He is super sweet, incredibly kind and beyond beautiful; characteristics every boy mom dreams of. Tyson is cautious like his mother yet quick like his father. His attention span may be short but his motivation is most certainly not. He is extremely intelligent and surprisingly observant. Life is simpler, more beautiful when seen through his eyes. Tyson forces those around him to appreciate moments and milestones most take for granted. He is always content, blissfully unaware of missed experiences which simultaneously yields his momma great comfort and painful frustration.
Tyson has my whole heart. He also has autism.
My husband and I first noticed a speech regression around 21-22 months. Poor eye contact and repetitive play soon followed. It broke my heart when he wouldn’t respond to his name. Tyson was assessed at Cincinnati Children's Hospital on March 15, 2018 and on March 22nd (a date I still recall more quickly than my own birthday) a developmental pediatrician, psychologist and speech pathologist labeled him as "on the spectrum."
My feelings regarding Tyson’s diagnosis were two-fold at the time. On one reasonable hand, I was relieved by the diagnosis of autism. I was finally given the green light I so desperately desired to get Tyson the help he needed. On the other clearly crazy hand, I viewed autism as a difficult problem to be solved, an illness capable of cure. I dove into dietary restrictions, scoured the internet for essential oil remedies and contemplated alternative therapies. I quickly realized I would drive myself crazy the longer I lingered in that mindset. I am now confident that through our early intervention efforts and ongoing speech and occupational therapies we are changing the outcome for Tyson.
To be perfectly honest, when it comes to Tyson I lean more realist than optimist. Not to say I don’t believe he’s capable of great things but Tyson trying his best to navigate a world not built for people like him will always be more than enough for me. But man! This kid is determined to prove me wrong! Tyson recently graduated from a 3 year Early Intensive Behavior Intervention Program (or ‘preschool’ as I like to call it) and entered kindergarten in a public general education class (with support of course) at the end of August. It blows my mind to think of how far he has come and how much both he and I have learned. I’m a better parent and person for it. Sure, our accomplishments haven’t been without tears, trial and error but I truly believe life gets better after diagnosis. I wouldn’t change Tyson for anything and to say I’m proud of him is an understatement. Tysie, keep showing up and keep showing your momma the way!