Navigating neurodivergence
Mari Werth began her career in 2007 as a founding middle school teacher in Nest, a special-purpose program that integrates students with autism into inclusion-model NYC public school classrooms.
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An essay by Mari Werth
In 2007, I devoted my life to educating kids on the autism spectrum. In 2018, I had an autistic baby.
Liam was almost born in a waiting area, when our hospital had no open rooms. I birthed him after vomiting uncontrollably following an undiagnosed staph infection. It was an unpleasant pregnancy and birth, but he was a pleasant baby. He slept through that first night in the hospital; he rarely cried; he fit into the folds of our family.
It was our toddler, who was two at the time of his little brother’s birth, that we were worried about. He was deeply jealous of his little brother, throwing rabid tantrums, heaving things, waking multiple times at night. He would grow out of it, everyone said, and he did, right around the time of his third birthday.
So when Liam entered toddlerhood with extra energy, explosive tantrums, and bone-hard rigidity, we thought nothing of it. As he approached preschool age, he was slated to enter the same public elementary as his brother, and none of these behaviors had subsided. I remember the week before he entered school, I turned to my husband and said, He will melt in a classroom environment. My husband was nonplussed, but I knew better.
Sticky Notes from Jellyworld:
Moving words by Getting Sticky alum, Pia Baroncini:
“Lulu didn't share our elation regarding the impending arrival of her sister and made her antipathy well known through words and actions. She rebelled by taking drugs, staying out, calling me names, and failing in school. A shitstorm of variables combined during peak teenage transition to make everything feel impossible for us all.” What a 16 year age gap taught me about motherhood, an essay by Keven Amfo.
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