When he was 2, Jace Lamb’s development was right on schedule. He could recognize shapes, colors, even letters.

“He was engaging, and smiled, and very sweet,” said Macy Lamb, Senior Manager, Regulatory. “Easy baby. Even his learning and academics were ahead of my older son.”

But within a year, that all changed. Jace’s development slowed, even stalled. His speech became more and more labored. Meltdowns and crying became more frequent.

Like Lamb, employees Paul Jacks and Cody Bossio are parents of autistic children and members of Oncor’s People With Abilities Employee Resource Group. April is Autism Awareness Month and these are their stories.

Jacks and his wife, LaDeidra, also first noticed a change in their son, Andrew, when he was about 2. The couple already had three children, so developmentally, they knew what to expect.

“He was nonverbal,” said Jacks, Manager, Energy Efficiency. “His speech was delayed. He would line up his toys in straight lines.

“He can get very frustrated by change. And things not being done the same way or the day isn’t going the exact same way each day is supposed to go.”

Andrew is now 10 and a fourth-grader at Daulton Elementary in Mansfield. “Once he started to talk, he never stopped,” Jacks said. “He just took off with talking. His thing is just understanding some social cues and the gray areas. For kids with autism, everything is black and white.”

A change after the pandemic

Bossio and his wife, Magnin, have a 4-year-old girl named Elikya and a 2-month-old baby boy named Eliam. Before Elikya turned 2, she said simple things like “bye, bye,” Bossio said. But they noticed a change in her behavior after the pandemic kept her at home for several months.

“She started keeping to herself more, more closed off,” said Bossio, a New Construction Manager at the Fort Worth North service center. “She was literally afraid of all the kids at a park once we stepped out right after people could go back to public places. She would run away from the other kids.”

Two daycares declined to care for Elikya. They told the Bossios they didn’t have the necessary training to work with her. At the time, Elikya would spend the day trying to open doors and run away, Bossio said.

But the Bossios, with help from an early child intervention service, enrolled her in school and home therapy. “She’s now trying to put words together,” Bossio said.

“It was tough to go through,” Bossio said. “In the beginning, we didn’t know what it was or what we could do to help her reach her full potential. We were looking for information on how we could maximize that for our little princess.”

Now, Elikya combines school and applied behavior analysis therapy. “It’s amazing how much progress she makes every day,” Bossio said.

Three sons, two with autism

For Jace Lamb, it took until he was 4 before doctors diagnosed him as autistic, Lamb said. And while autism wasn’t new 20 years ago, it was difficult finding doctors and specialists who understood it. Lamb spent hours each day locating the right support for her son.

“That diagnosis just started a long journey,” said Lamb. “We got him a tutor to get him reading. We did social skills therapy, language therapy, vision eye therapy and neurological brain therapy. It was a lot. But every little thing we did helped. There was no one thing that was this miracle cure.”

Lamb has two other sons, Jackson, 27, and Jayden, 21. Jackson is not autistic. He played college football, has a finance degree and married his high school sweetheart. Jayden is autistic and suffers from some of the same language issues as Jace.

“Jayden benefited from all I learned from Jace,” Lamb said. “He’s a little more laid back and has a little better sense of humor. I learned that two people can have the same disability or disorder, but they’re different people.”

Jace and Jayden live at home with Lamb and her husband, Jeff, in Frisco. In the last year, Jace completed a junior college auto body program and works for a local body shop. Jayden stocks merchandise and handles other tasks at an area Wal-Mart.

“I always worried about what’s going to happen to them after they graduated from high school,” Lamb said. “What would their future be like? You’re always worried about what’s going to happen when you die.”

In the boys’ early years, Lamb said Oncor allowed her to work part-time so she could take her sons to therapy and doctor appointments. At that time, insurance didn’t cover autism-related treatment, she said, so the family was spending an extra $1,800 a month.

“I was really desperate trying to seek out help,” she said. “I gave myself an ulcer. It was not easy, not at all. Unfortunately, during that time, my poor husband worked long hours as a tax director and his company wasn’t as supportive, so the bulk of the research and therapy fell on my shoulders.

“Most nights he would reassure me that everything was going to be fine and we would pray. That would bring a sense of peace and calm.”

‘A peace that comes from God’

“I just think that having a child with differences or taking care of a loved one with differences can be overwhelming, if you try to take it on yourself,” Bossio said. “It’s important to reach out to the right people. We have the peace that comes from God.”

Faith has been a very important part of the Jacks family. Paul and LaDeidra Jacks lost their first child from Pre-eclampsia. And doctors told them she might not be able to get pregnant again.

“After we lost the first child, we just prayed and said, ‘OK, God, if you want us to have children, it’s on you,’” Jacks said. “However many you bless us with is how many you bless us with.”

That was eight children ago. In addition to Andrew, the Jacks have four boys and three girls, ranging in age from 2 to 14.

The youngest, Thomas, presented the Jacks with a new challenge. He was born with the umbilical cord wrapped twice around his neck and had to be resuscitated at birth. He’s since been diagnosed with a severe brain injury that resulted in cerebral palsy.

“There’s some challenging days,” Jacks said, chuckling. “Andrew has taught us more than we have probably taught him. He processes differently. Just understanding him has really made this journey worth it, right?”

Lamb said her own journey with autism has had countless highs and lows, but they try to spend as much time as a family having fun and laughing. Jace and Jayden are “a huge blessing,” she said.

“They are amazing, fun, caring young men and just having them in our lives has made us all better people,” Lamb said. “You definitely learn not to stress over the small things in life.”