March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month — and we continue to highlight unique individuals in our community in this week’s Not Your Average Neighbor.
Inside one local school, there’s a fifth grader who reminds everyone what joy really sounds like. Let’s take a look.
You might not hear Oliver before you see him. But you’ll notice him. Because somewhere down the hallway, there’s a steady entrance and a small giggle.
“It’s a joy. Oliver is a joy to have in class. You know we all have our ups and downs, but at the end of the day when you hear Oliver’s giggle walking through the halls, it puts a smile on your face, so it’s a pleasure,” said Andoni Demitras, intervention specialist.
Oliver Clark is a fifth grader at Steubenville City Schools, part of the STARS program. He’s nonverbal and communicates using a tablet device — but in his classroom, what matters most isn’t what he says, it’s how he grows.
His intervention specialist, Andoni Demitras, works closely with him every day, focusing on the small, meaningful milestones that build independence.
“So it all comes down — it’s just like the same typical peers. It’s growing up, becoming an adult, and working with what we got,” Demitras said.
“A lot of his goals are, can Oliver put his coat on without assistance? So the more independence Oliver shows, that’s another check off the list for us.”
Progress here doesn’t always look big. Sometimes it’s a zipper, a routine, or a moment that some people might not think twice about. But those are the moments that matter most right now for Ollie as he learns at his own pace.
Outside of schoolwork, Oliver’s world opens up even more. And there’s one place in particular where everything just seems to click — the pool.
When I sat down with his mom, Alycia Clark, she told me that’s where he feels most like himself.
“He really is such a sweet joy, always. Of course he has his moments where if his routine is not followed then that may be a different story, but yeah, he’s just very gentle, very kind, very happy all the time, loves to have fun. He does love being by himself, but he can entertain himself for hours and hours. He’s just very happy and gentle,” she said.
“The pool is his happy place. He’s so comfortable in the pool. I think it’s a sensory thing for him too. I think he just loves the way that it feels, loves the way that it sounds underwater. He just feels very safe in the water.”
She says, like many families, the beginning — when finding out her son learns differently — can feel overwhelming.
“It’s going to be scary at first, you know, stressful, thinking first of all what are we going to do? What are other people going to think? How is he going to make a friend? Like all of those different things, but it’ll be OK. You have to find your community though,” Clark said.
And for her, that meant reaching out, even when she didn’t know where to start.
“I joined, whenever he was first diagnosed, as many autism home support groups as I could because I didn’t really know anybody else in person that lived around here that had things in common. So I joined as many as I could.”
Now, she says Oliver lives a full and active life, doing the things he loves in his own way.
“He definitely lives a full life. Though he does a lot of things he needs accommodations for, he still goes to school, loves school, plays all of his sports. He’s involved in Special Olympics. He does basketball, bowling, football. He loves swimming. He’s always having fun.”
And that idea of building a life where everyone belongs is something community leaders are working toward daily.
When I spoke with Cookie West, with the Jefferson County Board of Developmental Disabilities, she said that sense of belonging is at the heart of everything they do.
“I believe I’m called to it. I honestly believe God called me to work in this field, and I don’t even really see it as work. I really just believe that this is where I’m supposed to be,” West said.
Because a strong community isn’t built on sameness. It’s built on making sure everyone is seen.
And maybe that’s the best way to understand Oliver — not by what he can’t say, but by what he shows he can do every single day.
“I think one of the analogies I was thinking about is just about a bouquet — it has different flowers in it, different sizes, different fragrances. But when those flowers individually come together, they make the fragrance. The arrangement is so beautiful. So that’s what I feel like with our community. We can’t be beautiful, we can’t ‘smell good,’ unless everybody is brought together.”
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