BUTLER — Joey Lykins gripped his plaque and grinned. The Clear Fork Middle School student is a testament to hard work, dedication and what can happen when you have the right team of people surrounding you.
Lykins, 11, was one of 16 Ohio students to receive this year’s R. A. Horn Award from the Ohio Department of Education. The award is presented to one exemplary special education student from each of Ohio’s 16 State Support Team regions.
Joey, along with fourth grade teacher Gabriel Dannemiller and intervention specialist Jeff Proto, were nominated for the State Support Team Region 7 Outstanding Achievement Awards in the spring by Butler Principal Libby Nickoli.
The awards banquet was cancelled due to COVID-19, but Joey, his teachers and his family celebrated the honor with cake on the school lawn last month.
“We just wouldn’t change him for anything. It’s been an amazing journey and i’m lucky to be a part of it,” said Marta Lykins, Joey’s mother.
Joey’s teachers describe him as a hardworking student who gets along with everyone. He excels in math and earns good grades in all of his classes. His interests range from art to soccer to baseball. He’s not a huge conversationalist, but his communication skills have come a long way.
Nevertheless, the journey hasn’t been easy for Joey and his family.
When he hadn’t started speaking by age 2, his parents took him to Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Shortly afterwards, he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
Specialists told his parents that he’d spend his early years lagging behind.
“It was hard. Me and my husband were both in denial,” Marta recalled. “When he got his diagnosis and we went through all this extensive testing, they told us he would be on the same page as his peers at age 10.”
Despite the initial shock, disappointment soon turned to acceptance and a fierce determination to get Joey what he needed to thrive.
“After I got into the acceptance mode, I was full-on, stronger than anything, I’m going to get him what he needs and that’s my job. It was like go mode,” she said.
Joey began intensive therapy and Head Start classes, where therapists, teachers and aides worked with him on his speech and social skills. After spending his early years in special education classes, Joey began to transition into a general education classroom in the second grade. Although he received help from an in-class intervention specialist and aide, he’s become more independent each year.
“I can have a conversation with him and he responds and answers questions. It’s breathtaking,” she said. “He has just blossomed and bloomed and it has been amazing to see him go from where we were to him now.”
During third and fourth grade, Lykins scored “proficient” in English Language Arts on his state tests. On his fourth grade math exam, he earned accelerated marks.
Dannemiller, Joey’s fourth grade math and science teacher, said he was one of the best in the class at multiplication facts.
Both Dannemiller and Proto credited Joey and his family for their hard work inside and outside the classroom.
“Honestly, it wasn’t anything we did differently. It was his determination to work hard every day and then also the parent support that he got at home,” Proto said.
Joey and his parents spend hours each week studying after school, reading over classroom materials multiple times and reviewing flash cards.
“Extra studying — that’s really what it takes for him,” Lykins said. “I feel like I take the test with him.”
“Most kids with special needs need a lot of repetition — going over and over it,” Proto said. “He was doing twice as much work as most of the kids and that’s really what helped it stick.”
Joey’s perseverance was also a major factor in his success.
“He always had a positive attitude about school. He might not say it, but you could see it in his demeanor, his actions and how he behaved,” Gabemiller said.
While Joey saw impressive academic gains in the fourth grade, he also made progress in other areas.
“I saw a lot of growth and his ability to communicate. At the beginning of the year kids would try to talk to him and he would just shake his head. But I saw towards the end of the year he was able to actually give feedback and me more conversational socially,” Proto said.
“That class, they rallied around him like I had never seen before,” Gabemiller added. “They all were there for Joey, you know, whatever he needed, they had his back. When they saw a strength they celebrated it, when they saw a weakness they were there to help.”
Now a sixth grader at Clear Fork Middle School, Joey continues to thrive.
“It’s always good to see a success story like Joey. It makes makes us really happy to see him accomplish things like that,” Dannemiller said. “That’s the biggest satisfaction of the job right there.”
