February 2024 Special Needs Living

A Brave Heart Triumphing Over Challenges Meet Jonah Mason

BY ANDREA HURR

There doesn’t ever seem to be a one-size-fits-all diagnosis for a child in the special needs community, and there isn’t a onesize-fits-all treatment plan either.

Jessica Mason knows this all too well in regards to her son Jonah and she has taken a multifaceted approach to helping him.

10-year-old Jonah who aspires to become a firefighter paramedic one day, has encountered many hurdles and struggles in his life so far. Jonah has autism, ADHD, and was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 4. His family describes him as “someone who has multiple colanders on his head, one for each condition. The little information that was getting through was funneled through the multiple colanders making it hard for him to learn and grow.” Jonah was struggling in public school as he was getting lost in the shuffle and his needs were not being met. Adding to that was a pandemic with virtual classrooms which did not work for him. This left both child and parents exceptionally frustrated. However, Jonah’s parents refused to give up and sought change.

Enter Julie Billiart School in Akron and their lives were changed for the better. Jonah started there halfway through first grade. Where previously he was struggling with reading, writing, and cognitive thinking, now he is thriving- reading, writing, and getting the support and help he needs to learn and grow.

“Finding a school that is supportive and understands his needs was the best thing to happen to Jonah and our family,” says Jessica. Julie Billiart is a school that nurtures and empowers students with learning and social differences. Julie Billiart recognizes and celebrates the fact that success looks different for every student, according to their website. Another part of their multifaceted approach involves a controversial treatment that has been extremely beneficial for Jonah.

At the time of his epilepsy diagnosis, Jonah was having 20 seizures per hour while sleeping and 5 an hour while awake. It is a stressful disorder to manage daily and many things would trigger Jonah’s seizures. Their lives revolved around this condition with many medications taken daily and worries about what would trigger a seizure. Adding to the stress were all of the doctor visits and appointments surrounding it. Jessica says that it wasn’t until Jonah started medical cannabis for his epilepsy that they got to a point where his seizures were truly considered “well controlled”. Medical cannabis has allowed him to get off of 2 of his 3 epilepsy medications. “He takes a high CBD, low THC tincture 3-4 times a day. There’s still so much stigma around medical cannabis but once we tell our story and how it has changed our lives and stopped the seizures, people tend to change the way they think of it. It’s just another medication in our house, and it’s working with less side effects than traditional epilepsy medications. We want people to know how beneficial medical cannabis has been and continues to be for our son.”

Another therapy that has brought the Mason’s much success is with animals. Jonah and his family volunteer at Alleycats & Aristocats, a cat rescue located in Medina that operates Cats Off The Square- a cat café and adoption center. “Jonah enjoys fostering cats and kittens. Before fostering he would come home from school and have a crying and screaming tantrum, now he comes home and cuddles the cats and takes a nap with them,” says Jessica. “The rescue is very accepting and supportive as many of the volunteers are [people with autism] or have children/ grandchildren on the spectrum. Finding a group of likeminded people has been very good for our family.”

Now that Jonah’s epilepsy is under control, he is thriving at a school that specializes in teaching students with special needs, and he has found an outlet with fostering cats, so he can enjoy life more fully. Jonah plays with school friends outside of school and joins daily online video game matches with them. He loves to go to Cedar Point which is something his epilepsy would have held him back from previously. Jonah also loves camping and loves going to the local fire department where the firemen have been teaching him what they do. The firemen have embraced Jonah and love having him visit. They have been instrumental in fostering his desire to become a fireman one day. The whole family has also rallied around Jonah’s love for cats by turning their camper into a food truck to sell hot dogs to benefit the cat rescue. Selling dogs for the cats! It’s truly a family affair.

Lastly, Jessica says, “Having a child with multiple special needs is one of the hardest jobs as a parent. Seeing him not make milestones or advance in school is devastating. We’ve learned that we have to constantly advocate for him and help him learn new skills. Having a supportive school environment made all the difference in the world. Our advice to others is to never stop advocating for your child and don’t give up!”