The connection was instant last month when Broncos receiver DaeSean Hamilton visited Sewall Child Development Center’s main location in Denver.

Sewall provides inclusive education for pre-kindergarten children of typical development in the same classroom as those with special needs such as autism. Hamilton knew how to interact with the children. He knew what the teachers were trying to accomplish and he knew their challenges. And he knew the importance of Sewall’s program because his older brother, Darius, has non-verbal autism.

“Incredible,” said Heidi Heissenbuttel, Sewall’s CEO/President. “He didn’t bat an eye. You would expect an athlete to really get middle-schoolers or high-schoolers — an easier age to grasp. But DaeSean sat right down with the 2- and 4-year olds. It was so impressive.”

Hamilton was equally impressed the tour, enough so to convince him he wanted to develop a relationship, which kick-started Friday when he delivered a keynote speech at the 17th annual Champions for Children luncheon to raise money for Sewall’s nine locations.

“It’s a no-brainer,” Hamilton said. “It was something I didn’t have to think twice about. Being in the NFL, I want to use my platform and I wanted it to be something that’s natural for me and won’t feel like extra effort. It does hit close to home and it’s something I’m interested in on my own rather than having to gain interest and learn about.”

Before going on-stage Friday, Hamilton sat at a table that included Broncos linebacker Bradley Chubb, cornerback Isaac Yiadom, receivers coach Zach Azzanni and receivers Courtland Sutton and Tim Patrick, all of whom were on-hand for support.

“It’s very impressive,” Patrick said. “I heard about (Hamilton’s story) before he got to the team and when he got drafted, I saw the whole storyline.”

Hamilton is well-schooled with the challenges facing kids with autism and their parents and siblings. He lived it growing up in Fredricksburg, Va., often preparing his older brother for school, making sure he was fed and keeping him entertained.

With his parents serving in the Marines, Hamilton said he was “probably 6 or 7,” when he started to care for Darius, who turned 26 last month and is two years older. He quickly adopted Darius’ schedule as his own. Sure, he missed out on things that a normal elementary school student might experience like hanging out with friends and sleep-overs, but he didn’t care. Family in general and Darius in particular came first. Always.

“I started to get the hang of things and understand things and helping out with my brother, it came as naturally as if I was doing it my whole life, as if it was sports,” DaeSean said. “It became a routine, like going to school or practice.”

Hamilton said he and Darius were together “every single day, almost every second of the day.” He made sacrifices but it never felt like it. Darius wasn’t a burden.

“Not at all,” DaeSean said. “Me hanging out with friends or doing sleep-overs — that didn’t happen often. I didn’t feel the urge to do those things. I became more social in high school, but I never thought I was getting the short end of the stick or it was unfair I had to do those things.”

Because he doesn’t speak, Darius learned visually, which allowed him to pick up sign language. DaeSean followed, watching Darius sign to learn key phrases.

Darius’ day includes a special needs program from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. and community involvement such as helping out at grocery stores. He lives with his parents, both of whom are retired from military service, and would eat McDonald’s cheeseburgers and French fries every day if permitted. Disney movies are his favorite form of entertainment.

It didn’t take long for Hamilton’s new Broncos teammates to realize the importance of Darius in his life.

“As soon as I met DaeSean, I watched a story about him and his brother and then being around him more, I’ve gotten more information about how much his brother and his family in general mean to him,” Sutton said.

Now in its 75th year of operating inclusive early education programs, Sewall has nine locations throughout the Denver area, instructing nearly 400 children ages toddler through pre-school. Each class numbers around 15 kids, including 5 to 8 with special needs.

Inclusion is Sewall’s modus operandi for more than two decades, but that wasn’t always the case.

Heissenbuttel started working at Sewall in 1987 as a teacher. Her first class: Eight children, all with special needs. Even with a teaching assistant and a therapist in the classroom, navigating each day was like running uphill, especially considering five of the children weren’t bathroom-trained.

“There were no models for the children to learn from,” Heissenbuttel said of the special needs kids being in their own classroom. “There was a belief system that was really entrenched — kids will learn better separately. For a child who had no language skills, how do they learn? By hearing other people talk. There was only so much I could say to eight kids on different levels.”

Research in the late 1980s indicated that joining typical kids and special needs kids in the same classroom benefits everybody. With the support of their board, Sewall’s staff introduced the inclusion model and Heissenbuttel said the impact was noticed “automatically.”

So why were the results so positive?

“Kids want to learn from other kids way more than adults and the (special needs) kids would start doing what the neuro-typical kids were doing,” Heissenbuttel said. “They both make better academic gains. They both make better social and emotional gains — attention span, regulating emotions, problem solving.”

Once a child is identified with a disability, an individual family service plan and individual education plan is established. Goals for autistic preschoolers (preschoolers with autism) may be to learn how to identify 10 words or use an assisted technology device that allows them to communicate by pushing on squares that give the verbal cue. For typical preschoolers, goals may include increasing their vocabulary from 500-1,000 words.

Yes, typical kids in the Sewall system learn patience, compassion, and empathy, but that is only a part of their experience, according to Heissenbuttel, who said “they learn more across the board.”

Once they enter kindergarten age, some kids at the Fillmore location go to the second floor to attend the REACH charter school (kindergarten-grade 5).

Earlier this year, a member of Sewall’s board of directions became familiar with Hamilton’s story and went through former Broncos running back Reggie Rivers (who has emceed Sewall events in the past) to get in touch with Hamilton. Sewall resonated with Hamilton because if a similar program was available when he was younger, he and his brother might have shared a classroom and thus, Darius may have showed more development.

“Back when I was in school, my brother (and other special-needs kids) were on their own lunch schedule, recess schedule — they didn’t get to interact with kids who don’t have special needs,” Hamilton said. “They were alienating them when they didn’t need to.”

Hamilton’s involvement with Sewall could raise money to be allocated to improving the facilities and also keeping teacher salaries competitive. Another aspect Hamilton wants to stress is helping special needs kids from lower-income families. Heissenbuttel estimated 75 percent of the children in Sewall’s are from families below the poverty line.

“The inclusive part of Sewall is special,” Hamilton said. “There are families in lower-income or less-wealthy families that have kids with special needs, but don’t have access to these resources. That’s something I have been thinking about for a long time. You go to Sewall and see kids with great access, you wonder about doing it country-wide across the U.S.”

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