Singer Toni Braxton has always been an advocate for autism education and awareness after she learned her son was on the spectrum. With an early diagnosis and the right interventions, these behaviors can be curbed, allowing autistic individuals to manage their disabilities.
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Braxton mentioned that initially, she became anxious on noticing that Diezel’s development that he didn’t make eye contact with other while they spoke to him, and most of the times preferred playing alone. I will tell you this.
She described her son as having been “off the spectrum” when he was diagnosed but now claims that he shows no signs of autism, continuing on to say that “our lives have changed”. “I knew I’d taken a life [and] I believed God’s payback was to give my son autism”. For more than a decade, she has been a tireless advocate on the national and global stage: at the United Nations, on Capitol Hill, at Autism Speaks Walks nationwide, and in personal letters of support to individuals and families affected by autism.
Diezel was diagnosed as autistic when he was just three, and soon after Braxton said she received a call from Suzanne Wright, the co-founder of Autism Speaks. “I mean, I can’t believe she’s gone”, Braxton said. The spectrum she referred to is a medical term used to identify a wide range of symptoms, skills, and levels of disability for those with autism, according to the NIH.
“Being the mother of an autistic child myself, [I know that] it can not be cured”, says Marsha Shand. Braxton says Wright, who died last week, gave her tips and programs that Diezel could enroll in to help him.
‘In my heart, I believed I had taken a life – an action that I thought God might one day punish me for, ‘ wrote Braxton, who grew up in a very religious family. Can the child see correctly now? Yes.
In the years after her son’s diagnosis Braxton quickly became one of the most visible and vocal advocates for autism awareness. “If the condition is caught early, and the person is worked with, it can be controlled, and maybe even corrected, but it cannot be cured”.
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Braxton, who suffers from her own condition of Lupus, said her upcoming tour will be “challenging” but she’s excited about the “adrenaline” of interacting with her fans.
