My Box of Chocolates

A tear-jerking, thought provoking, eye-opening, engaging, pleasurable and inspiring story about how an autistic child learned to read, write, speak, and do other basic life functions that we take for granted. Like any other young mother, Goretti Rerri is delighted and excited to embrace child-rearing and family life with all of its usual ups and downs. She emigrates to the USA with her three children to join her husband who is already in a medical residency program in New York City. However, when her youngest child, Teresa, begins exhibiting atypical behaviors as a toddler, Rerri grows highly concerned. When Teresa is diagnosed at 3 years old with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Rerri is stunned. And so begins their exceptional journey. Mother and daughter must work together to navigate a wide range of learning and behavioral issues that at times seem insurmountable. Autism also has a significant impact on day-to-day family life, as well as social and community connections. Through it all the family sticks together and Rerri holds an unflagging hope that Teresa can and must achieve the greatest level of personhood possible, which means finding the best interventions and cultivating the conditions where Teresa's bright humorous spirit can shine.
About the Author: Goretti E. Rerri has a bachelor's degree in English and a master's degree in education, specializing in special education, from Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio. She is certified to teach special education from pre-k to high school in the state of Texas and has been teaching in that capacity in the last 17 years. Over the span of her career, she has taught students with various forms of disabilities, including autism, downs syndrome, intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, ADHD, and learning disabilities. She has worked as a classroom teacher, a parent trainer, as well as an In-Home trainer of students with developmental disabilities. Rerri has also mentored a number of new teachers in the field of special education. An advocate for people with developmental disabilities, Rerri founded Emur Disability Advocacy Incorporated, a non-profit organization, whose flagship is the Emur Awards. The Emur Awards seeks, recognizes, and honors children and adults with developmental disabilities that have made meaningful contributions to their schools or communities. The awards are given in the month of March, in celebration of Developmental Disability Awareness Month. My Box of Chocolates: How My Child with Autism Learned to Read, Write and More, is her second book. Her first book, published in 2003, is titled Ceremonies and Festivals: Marriage, Burial, Chieftaincy, and Annual Festivals in Uvwie-Urhobo, Nigeria. Rerri, who immigrated to the United States from Nigeria in 1989, has three grown children and lives in Houston, Texas, where she continues to work as a special education teacher.