A Diagnosis in Adulthood, A New Path to Follow (repost from SPARK)

Date Published: January 3, 2022 (Updated: October 7, 2025)
By: Marina Sarris
(excerpt below from SPARK)

Braxton Webb has held plenty of jobs. He was a U.S. Marine Corps reservist, a truck driver, a security guard, and a deputy correctional officer. But he struggled with some of them, as he had in school when he was growing up.

When Webb was 33, he decided to find out why he had those difficulties. He saw a neuropsychologist who gave him the answer: He has autism.

Several years later, he got the answer to yet another question: Why does he have autism? That unexpected answer came from SPARK, the autism research study he joined after his diagnosis.

Now, Webb has a new career goal, one in which he knows he can excel. He also has a new purpose, as the father of two sons, one with autism and the other with autistic traits.

Read the full family story and how the Webb family continued their research journey in Simons Searchlight.