Autism Awareness Twitter Day
I just found out about this today. Autismfamily called for everyone on Twitter whose lives are touched with autism to share something about it, or their autistic loved one. Chest deep in editing (and facing an IEP meeting tomorrow, which always makes me nervous) I didn’t get to participate much. but I did comment that my son came home with 4 star stickers on his chart today, when 2 stars means he did work and behaved all day. Yesterday was a real hard day, so we needed a real good one to make up for it.
Today He bragged to me about “getting artsy and crafty” in art class, and taught me the ASL sign for “game”. I doubt anything else could have happened to help me feel better going into his IEP meeting tomorrow.
Autism is a very exhausting obstacle to face. Even more so because it’s spectrum disorer which means there is no one “rule” about what to expect from autism. My son is very lucky. He’s high functioning, above average intelligence and has no other complications that go hand in hand with ASD (which vary from under developed musculature to mental retardation and OCD). But it was only days after his diagnosis that we started having problems from other people who didn’t understand.
We were told his autism was our fault. We were told it was because we didn’t put him in daycare or preschool. We were told it was because we taught him his letters to soon. We were told it was because God was punishing us for not going to church. Only a year into his school life we were told by someone who was supposed to be a professional that we should just give up, stop pushing him and put him in a home for “people like him”.
We endure dirty looks when he is over stimulated out in public, and mean looks when he won’t do everything he’s told immediately when the nurses are prepping him for a doctor’s exam. (The nurse practitioner who he usually sees is very calm, gentle and respectful of his personal space. The dentist and optomistrist we’ve found are also fantastic, making jokes and talking very friendly to him to earn his trust.)
At times it’s not easy, but seeing how far he’s come is worth every frustrating moment.
So here’s a last link I’d like to share. ABC News’ 10 Myths About Autism. It barely begins to explain things, but everyone these days should have some knowledge about neuro-atypicality.
We do a good enough job blaming ourselves, we don’t need others to do it too. The bottom line is, it is not anyone’s fault. Our children are born unique individuals just like any other child. They have their differences, and life raising a child with Autism is extremely challenging. I wish people would take time to get to know our children as wonderful individuals. Life would be a lot easier for our children and us if people would accept our child’s differences and encourage them to be the best they can be. Invite us to be involved in their activities and help their children understand that a child with Autism thinks and feels just like they do. My son is very sensitive to how people react and treat him. There are times when he will refuse to go somewhere because he is afraid of how people will treat him.
It has been very hard trying to teach my son that some people are rude and snobbish and mean, so their approval of him or lack thereof shouldn’t matter. We’ve been working a lot lately telling him “Well do you feel good about your behavior/your work? If you are proud of you then that’s more important than even mom and dad being proud of you.”