My second son, Kyler is on the Autism Spectrum and April is
Autism Awareness Month and I want to tell you a little bit about how Autism
affects our lives.
First, I have to tell you, my son is truly amazing(spoken like a mother, I know). He is
what they call, twice exceptional. Basically, that means he has two things
about him that are not “the norm.” In
his case, he has a processing disability and is gifted which translates to
super, super smart. I’m not going to tell you that it has been easy to have a
child with special needs. I spend a lot time working with him on social graces
and how to tackle life in general. When he was little he would get so angry
that we had to strap him to a car seat and leave him to calm down. I know every
one of his teachers by name and worry about him constantly.
That being said, unlike many people claim, having Autism is
not the end of the world and living with
Autism is not anywhere near impossible, and even has its upsides.
Like we tell our son, we all have hard stuff to deal with
and he, like so many other autistic kids, handles his personal challenges with grace beyond his years. Sure he has
no filters and says whatever is on his mind but I kind of prefer the directness. At school, he
faces terrible ignorance and cruelty at times. Once two seventh grade boys were
all up in his face swearing at him, calling him this and that and he turned and
said to them, “What is it about my
presence that you find so objectionable?”
The boys were left scratching their heads, probably trying to figure out
what most of the words meant.
At home, Kyler is kind (unless he’s hungry) and often the only
one to thank me for mundane work like vacuuming his bedroom. In Elementary
School, he would often seek out younger kids and compliment them to make them
feel good because he understood that being “older” gave more weight to his
opinion. He feels, he loves, he aches
just like the rest of us.
Do I think we should find out why so many kids are now on
the Autism spectrum, I do. However, I think we should be careful not to treat
Autistic kids like they are broken or diseased. These are children we are
talking about, bright, creative, talented children that let us see the world
from a different slant. They open our eyes with their candor and teach us
patience with their persistence. In a handful
of years they will be our leaders and teachers, our mentors and parents and I
for one cannot wait to see what they accomplish.
Autism is hard, but it is like any other challenge that we
face, and I for one think this generation is up to the task.
