Post by momof2 on Jul 6, 2005 18:06:55 GMT -5
Hi my name is Carolyn. I have a 10 yr old autistic son and a 4 year old daughter that is OK at this point. My son was diagnosed at age 3. He is a high functioning, when he was diagnosed he knew his ABC's and could tell you what all the states were by looking at a large map of the world.( He memorized the shapes to go with the names of the states.) He is in regular class's but has a full time aid with him. He is still struggling with the social skill aspect. The kids at his school have learned to understand him and they get alone for the most part. He is going into the 5 grade and he is taller and weights more then most of his classmates so some of the new students pick on him. Thankfully the school has been great about stopping the bullying before it gets out of hand. Unfortunately his social skills rang around his baby sisters age, so normally he plays with 4 and 5 year old kids. It gets hard at times because the parents don't understand and they freak out when they see his playing with them, so I have to go over and explain to them that he is autistic and is no threat to there kids. It is hard to be a parent of a child with a disability. I have always tried to make sure Michael feels like he is a good as anyone else, but it is hard to see and hear other kids call him names because he acts different. Some of the parents aren't any better. Thankfully Michael doesn't realize the kids are being mean and in a lot of ways I hope he never does. (Ignore sometimes is bliss) but I am afraid that one day he will realize the kids are not his friends and are being bullies. It is sad when the only friend your child has to play with is a sibling. Well I have been in California for almost 4 years but we haven't had a lot of luck finding other parents with autistic kids. So if there is anyone out there in the Redding area, I would really like to talk to you and maybe down the road get our kids together? Hope you all have a great day.