From left: Korban (15), Emma, Lacie (13) and Maddison (13) Williams. Photo / Supplied
From left: Korban (15), Emma, Lacie (13) and Maddison (13) Williams. Photo / Supplied
Whanganui Intermediate School student Lacie Williams (11) has an ability.
This ability enables her to perfect a dance routine in 15 minutes, paint, draw, and create makeup looks. Her abilities come from autism, which allows her to process things differently and fixate on things such as dance routines and drawings until she does them perfectly.
April is Autism Awareness Month and Lacie’s mum, Emma Williams, says her ability should be celebrated. Lacie was diagnosed with autism last year, but the process of getting the correct diagnosis was difficult.
“Before she started school she was checked and flagged for ADHD. It’s common for autistic girls to get the wrong diagnosis. Autism in girls is a lot different to autism in boys and some of the signs of ADHD and ASD cross over.”
Lacie’s brother Korban (15) is also autistic, and Emma says the diagnosis was made when he was 12.
“With Korban I had done my research on autism in boys and I found a lot of helpful pages. With girls it’s different. There isn’t as much research out there on girls with autism.”
Despite having the same diagnosis, Lacie and Korban couldn’t be any more different.
“Autism isn’t one-size-fits-all. It’s a whole spectrum and that’s obvious from how different they communicate. Lacie is very expressive which is different from Korban. They may have the same diagnosis but they’re polar opposites. Everyone with autism has a different experience.”
Fourteen-year-old Lacie Williams has a wide range of interests and talents, including art, dance and makeup.
Lacie says her ability enables her to not only pick up dance routines quickly but to also pick up gymnastic, trampolining and aerobatic routines as well.
“I’m quite flexible. I’ve been doing the splits since I was about 3 years old. I can do flips on the trampoline, one-handed cartwheels and also the bridge.”
When Lacie isn’t perfecting her aerobatic routines, she is drawing and painting.
“I like pencil drawing. I often draw cartoon characters. I’m also a young makeup artist. I like applying makeup and coming up with different looks.”
She loves animals, and has one dog, Augie, and two cats, Bronson and Bruno, who she loves very much.
“Augie is a 4-year-old miniature bulldog and both cats are 1 year old. I also have my RDA horse Gennie, who I get to ride at the Whanganui RDA.”
Emma says she’d like to see more information about autism in girls.
“If there is more information out there it would be easier to get a diagnosis. Some girls get to quite an old age before they get diagnosed and receiving that diagnosis is a million times harder. For Lacie, the diagnosis gave her an explanation as to why she struggles socially but excels in other areas. I think all autistic people deserve to have that, and for girls, it’s harder to get that diagnosis.”
