Any parents of children with autism?

Question

It has crossed my mind for my daughter (who shows characterstics)to have autism. Any parents out there with a child with a mild case? can you email me and tell me about it. Ive been researching for some time so please do not respond with the signs of it or your opinion of what its about. I ONLY want to know personal experiences from people who live it everyday. Id rather speak privately to someone that has a child with this.

Answer 1

Hi K,

I had absolutely no idea about autism two years ago. One day, I watched the movie "Rain Man" and straight away my gut feeling was that my then 2.5-years-old daughter shared many traits with the character "Raymond". I began to search for more info in the Internet about the movie, and came across, for the first time, some facts and info about ASD. Went to see a "child care and maternal health" worker to get a referral to a speech therapist. After a long cue and long process of myriad types of assessments, at 3.5 years of age, my daughter was finally diagnosed with autism. Until that day, everybody thought my doubts were too far fetched.

So, I would recommend you to go with your gut feelings and *never* give up hope. I worked hard after my daughter's diagnosis and undertook some training to become an ABA therapist myself. I did not spend money that much but continually trained myself in that area in depth. At 5.5 years of age now, she has improved a *great* deal. Her paediatrician opines that she would be able to pursue a career, get married and have children in the long run.

You are most welcome to contact me through Y!A email communication service.

Wishing you all the best!

Answer 2

I'm not a parent, but my little sister is mildly autistic. She's six. We use sign language and PECS to make her more verbal. She goes to a normal school where she participates in both normal classes and special needs classes. Being around other children has really helped her. She has a best friend who's not autistic, and they get along without issues. Sometimes she throws tantrums, but they're managable. She goes through fazes like any other kid, and everyone from her preschool class learned sign language to communicate with her better. We have TSS people and other workers come to the house a couple of times a week. She fits in with everyone else, and because she's on the one side of the autism spectrum (the mild side), when she gets older, nobody will be able to tell she has autism. It will just take a little more effort to keep up in class and such.

Whether she's autistic or not (and you have my prayers), please support the cause of autism awareness and go on autism walks. I personally wear the autism ribbon in my hair everyday.

Answer 3

I have a 13 year old son with high functioning autism. He's in 7th grade, and for the most part functions at his grade level. In many ways he's a typical teenage boy, in other ways he's not. He's very much into computers and video games, you'll find LOTS of kids on the spectrum are. He also has been dxed with OCD and ADHD--and he's on medications for both.

It's easier now that he's older. When he was younger people would tell me that, and I'd laugh at them, but they were right. These kids do grow up. He still struggles with autistic tendencies, he doesn't have many "friends" like most teens do, he's happiest when he's by himself. I have to push him to get out and do things, but he's usually happy when he does. We still always have back up and contingency plans when we go out with our kids though--we frequently will take 2 cars so that if our son gets upset or anxious, one parent can take him home and the othe can stay with the rest of the family. We recently took our daughter to New York City, and left him at home with my mom. On one hand I felt horribly guilty about taking what was basically a family vacation w/o him, on the other, he would've hated NYC with a severe passion, and made EVERYONE in the family miserable.

I'd email you, but I've got to enable my email to do so, and I"m not willing to do that--I've gotten lots of hate mail in the past when someone disagrees with one of my answers, so it's easier to simply block all email. I'm sorry.

Answer 4

You are more then welcome to email me if you have questions or are looking for information. My son has Aspergers (it's on the autistic spectrum)