A few days after my son Mateo was born, I pressed record on a moment we were having together where I was teaching him about communication. I’ve always been fascinated by it and wanted to share an interesting fact that I had learned along the way.

I spoke to him about how 7% of communication is the words we use, while 38% is the tone and the remaining 55% is our body language. (While those numbers may not be exact, they’re definitely close.)

Little did I know that Mateo would teach me even more about communicating than I could ever have imagined.

What I thought I knew would turn out to only be the surface of a deeper understanding, as we would eventually come to learn that our beautiful boy had autism.

Mateo is now 6 and is non-verbal.

Autism was something I didn’t know how to handle in the beginning. I didn’t even understand it.

He was just a little boy and I knew that he was developing at his own pace, just as I did. I didn’t trust the people around us that were telling us what they thought.

Marissa is a great mother and she took the initiative from day 1. While she gave me the time to process what was going on, she wasn’t going to wait until I was ready to accept it. I knew deep down that she knew better than me and hoped that if she handled it, like she does with most things, Mateo would be ok.

We began with all kinds of early interventions that would help him develop “normally”. I fully supported this and early on when your toddler doesn’t speak, it’s a bit easier to accept. (Until you find yourself with another child less than 2 years later, along with another 1 not long after that who both seem to be developing a bit faster.)

When it was just Mateo and we were navigating life as new parents on top of this thing we didn’t really understand, I remember thinking about how much less we all could speak if we just decided to start listening more. That’s actually something I was intentional about doing.

This type of communication began becoming a part of my work. I started to film more and more long form conversations with people that interested me. This became what I called Beyond Werds.

Somewhere in the background was this conversation about autism that I wasn’t ready to have.

Over time this would change. I began experiencing conversations that while interesting, didn’t connect with the innermost part of me that now writes these words.

As I approached the acceptance phase of an autism diagnosis as a father, this topic became increasingly more important to me. What began as a topic I might bring up at the end of a filmed conversation, would eventually lead to the universal theme of the entire conversation. I knew what I was capturing would provide value for parents like me and professionals in the special needs space that could help.

The end I served was too obvious to ignore.

Beyond Werds was evolving into something different and I knew I needed to continue placing one foot in front of the other in this direction.

When it became clear to me that Beyond Werds was directly connected to Autism, I realized that I had some work to do to establish that positioning in a marketplace.

I spent countless hours focused on developing a deeper understanding of my experience and the things that mattered most. This work would go on to prepare me and my family for our move from New Jersey to Charlotte in June of 2023.

Beyond Werds exists to be the leader in authentic storytelling for those in and around the autism community. This mission not only directly impacts our families, but the professionals and organizations in this space that understand and serve us.

We’re here to make sure those stories are told.