Family Shares Story of Coping with Autism

Occupational therapist Becky Sellers,
right, and therapist Nicole Best, in back
try to calm teenager Levi White
during a meltdown.

SMYRNA, Tenn. — Levi White cannot use words to communicate. Instead he moans, grunts, grimaces, stomps his feet and slaps or flaps his hands.
His mother and two siblings guess what he wants. If they’re wrong, the 240-pound 12-year-old has a meltdown, and no one wants that.
Levi is among the 11.3 percent of American children who have some form of autism.