 Autism
My son was born in 1995. 10 years later he was diagnosed with an extremely high functioning autistic spectrum disorder.
Autism. Have you seen that movie with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise? Rain Man? Well, my son is nothing like that. Autism is a sort of sliding scale - Rain Man at one end and my son at the other end. To confuse matters there are different traits that somebody with autism may or may not exhibit.
My son looks just like a regular kid, but when he was little we would get people stopping and staring at us because of the way he behaved. My son was not being naughty - what he has is a hidden disability that makes it difficult for him to make sense of the world and other people.
The main way that we were affected by autism is that my son was not able to fit in to a school environment. Thankfully it had always been intended that he was home educated anyway. He did go to school for 4 terms and it was a nightmare. He left school at the end of Year 1 very depressed, disillusioned and with even lower self-esteem than he had anyway. For a 6 year old he was as close to suicidal as you could get.
My son is very sensitive to a number of things. He doesn't like loud noises, he doesn't like bright or flickering lights, he can't stand crowds, he can't tell when he's hot or cold. He reacts instictively to protect himself, even if that means curling into a ball with his hands over his head in the middle of the street.
He can't always get his words out and stutters. He gets extremely frustrated when he can't do things he knows he should be able to and then feels like a failure. He ends up demoralised because he can't fasten the top button on his shirt or tie a shoe-lace. He can't hear the difference between phonetic sounds - van and fan are the same to him! If he can't remember a sequence of steps at dance class he will hide under a table, or hit himself, or bang his head against the wall.
My son has the innocence of a toddler and the intellect of a teenager. He cuddles up to Winnie The Pooh whilst reading about molecules and DNA.
I've had to carrying him kicking and screaming out of a shop because there was a Pokemon toy in there that he hadn't seen before. I've had to drag him out of a play area because he didn't want to go home yet. I've also had the joy of watching him jumping up and down, laughing and clapping his hands together because his periodic table poster arrive in the mail. I've seen him watching a spider spin a web with a look of total awe on his face. If my son was a little boy then people would be more accepting of this behaviour, but he isn't a little boy, not physically, he's a teenager. Emotionally he's much younger, intellectually he's much older. The two things balance out.
I've been told that my son is one of the lucky ones. His high intelligence means that he will be able to bluff people into thinking he's normal - Pah
He's my son, I love him without any doubts or reservations and I am proud of his achievements.
If he didn't have autism he wouldn't study so hard. He wouldn't be so protective towards his family. He wouldn't be so sensitive about understanding peoples feelings. He wouldn't have the innocence that he does. Autism has made my son the wonderfully caring young man he is.
I'm glad my son has autism. | 
