Blake & Brandon Beard Autism Service Dog Fund!

Hi Everyone!

Thank you for taking the time to learn about our family.   Blake and Brandon are 12 year old fraternal twins with Autism.    They may share a birthday, but that is where the similarities end.    Autism is a spectrum disorder and we have both ends of the spectrum in our home.  

Brandon is on the severe end of the Autism spectrum, and also suffers from ADHD, PTSD, PICA,  cognitive delay, and is non verbal.   He does have a few signs and uses an app on his Ipad for very basic communication, however the frustration due to his lack of speech causes a great deal of turmoil for Brandon and our family.   Our future service dog will be trained to recognize when Brandon is becoming frustrated and apply deep pressure that he seeks currently in non productive ways, such as head banging, stimming, and self-injurious behaviors that resulted historically in multiple ER visits, hospitalizations, and stitches for him and our family.   We often refer to Brandon as our “Ninja”, as he has a special set of skills for performing Houdini like maneuvers to escape car seats and any item used to contain him.   He is also drawn to water, however, is not a strong swimmer with his limited swimming skills.   You have likely seen in the news numerous cases of children with Autism wandering off and often drowning.   Our future service dog will be trained in tracking in the event Brandon is able to escape his surroundings.  

Blake is on the high functioning end of the spectrum, and struggles with social interactions and emotion regulation.   Through the use of an Autism trained service dog, we look forward to de-escalating frustrating situations for Blake in which he struggles to control his emotions.  Anxiety makes Blake often a very anxious kid, and this dog will provide a vehicle for him to calm himself not only with every day tasks, but disruptions to his daily routine such as doctor's appointments.  

Thank you for your support!