I recently read the new fiction novel, “Happiness Falls” by Angie Kim, a New York Times Bestseller and Starred Review recipient by Kirkos Reviews. Published in late August, the book tells the story of a family with 3 teenagers, Eugene, Mia, and John. Eugene is diagnosed with nonverbal autism and Angelman’s Syndrome, a genetic disorder characterized by developmental delays, issues with motor control and balance, severe speech and language problems, seizure disorder, and a frequently happy demeanor.
The book starts with Eugene and his dad, Adam Parkson taking a hike in the local park. When Eugene suddenly runs home alone frantic with blood on his shirt and under his nails and the rest of the family gets a knock at the door from the police, saying that he caused a car accident, they are horrified and left to wonder what on earth happened to Adam and why Eugene, due to the complexity of his diagnoses, is suddenly showing up home alone. Adam is soon reported missing, and the family is left to figure out what happened and whether Eugene had anything to do with his disappearance.
Due to the severity of his autism, although he is chronologically 14 years old, the family often assumes Eugene has the developmental age range of approximately a three to four- year old child It is not until Eugene’s mother and siblings discover videos of him learning to spell as a form of communication with the help of a speech language pathologist and his dad, that they realize he may be aware and much more capable and intelligent than they had originally thought.
The book is partly a mystery, and partly a testament of presuming young person with autism to be capable and intelligent despite not being able to communicate verbally. I think this is important for parents to remember that just because a kid with autism doesn’t communicate verbally, doesn’t necessarily mean they have the intellectual and developmental level of a young child. It can be helpful to obtain a clinical evaluation to look at areas such as verbal reasoning, problem solving skills, speech and language, etc and it can be worth it to have such tests repeated as the child ages since they may gain skills in certain areas. I also think it’s a very good thing to have high expectations of kids with autism and related disabilities because it helps them to learn to have high expectations of themselves as adults and that they can do a lot of things on their own.
"Happiness Falls" is available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.
Nassim, A. (2024). Happiness Falls Book Review. https://www.iidc.indiana.edu/irca/articles/happiness-falls-book-review.html