Boy's Love of Art Helps Him Communicate

Evan McClintock had trouble communicating to his parents exactly what he wanted.

He not only had the frustrations of being a young child, and getting his point across. But he also had autism.

It was a struggle to let them know what he wanted.

And his parents, Bob and Karen, felt that frustration too.

But one day, when the Lake in the Hills boy was about five, he came up with his own way of communicating.

He started drawing.

At first, it was just with stick figures.

One day he was crying, and his parents didn’t know what he wanted.

Soon he drew a picture of a stick figure and McDonald’s, to let them know he wanted to go there to eat.

“We finally realized what it was,” Karen McClintock said.

Evan has been expressing himself through his artwork ever since.

He’s come a long way since that day of drawing stick figures, not only in his artwork, but also in his communication skills.

But still, art is something the 10 year old loves, and something he uses to express himself, his mother said.

“He’s just always enjoyed doing it,” his mom said. “It just kind of snowballed from the stick figures. He loves movies and videos, and he would freeze frame a video and draw the pictures on the screen.

“Now he draws everything. Landscapes. Still life. It’s what he likes to do and it makes him feel comfortable,” she said.

Evan’s parents learned he was autistic when he was about three.

Karen McClintock said he was in his own world back then.

“He wouldn’t speak a word. He preferred to live in his own world. He would just stare at the TV. He didn’t want any contact,” she said.

His parents didn’t know what was wrong.

They took him to doctors, who wanted to do various tests on him including neurological tests.

Ultimately, they diagnosed him with autism.

“It was devastating first for about six months. But then you figure, you can’t change anything. It’s best to figure out how to work with him and change things for the better,” Karen McClintock said. “We found ways to get through to him.”

His doctors found medications that help Evan, she said.

And his family found their son again, and what a joy he is to be around.

“Now he’s a great kid,” Karen McClintock said.

“He loves people and being around people now. He’s got his own little sense of humor. He tries to be funny,” she said.

Evan is in fifth grade in the Huntley School District in a self-contained classroom, where he thrives.

And he, of course, continues to do his artwork, which last year helped raise more than $5,000 for other families impacted by autism through , sponsored by the Huntley Jaycees.

This year, the Jaycees are doing the fundraiser again, and hoping to raise $7,500 for by auctioning Evan’s artwork off.

Evan doesn’t really understand how much his artwork is helping people, his mother said.

He just knows that it’s fun, she said. And that people really love his artwork.

His parents aren’t sure where he got his talent. Neither of them can claim any artistic ability. And no one on either side of their families is artistic either.

It’s just in him.

And he loves it, his mom said.

When the family goes places and does things, and he doesn’t want to participate, he likes to draw.

“We’re happy he has this,” she said. “It’s what he loves to do.”