Today marks another Autism Awareness Day and reminds me that autism wasn’t something we were aware of just a few short years ago.
I wasn’t planning on writing a blog post today but looking back at my previous posts I realised I didn’t mark this day last year. I also didn’t mark Ethan’s diagnosis day for the past two years like I used to. I think this could be a good thing, that perhaps autism isn’t such the shock that it once was but I think the truth of it is we are just so busy. Busy juggling autism, our very active son, a very active toddler and life in general.
What Autism Means To Us
Autism is part of our sons personality. It brings with it many struggles and joyful moments. Autism means our son has delays and we have to learn how to work with him and his needs. We have had to learn how to communicate in many different ways and think about how we express our communication. Autism means planning, planning and more planning. Just to go to the shops has to be planned. Autism means meltdowns and trying to work out why they have happened. Autism means not knowing if you will ever be able to have a meaningful conversation with our son. It also means worrying about who will look after our son when we have gone.
Our Struggles With Autism
At the moment we are struggling with discipline. Finding something that works and we all understand is becoming a challenge. We also always struggle with sleep and the lack of it. It feels like there is always a different challenge that we have to overcome.
Our Autism Progress
There has been lots of progress since our son received his official diagnosis. We now have some speech, sometimes even prompted sentences. But I would still describe him as pre-verbal. Our son can now read some words and will read books he brings home from school. He loves logos and a visit into town to look at the logos is a real highlight for him. He has recently discovered goggle maps and will work out the places we have visited.
Autism is a Spectrum
Autism is a spectrum and we must remember that everyone is on a different journey. Would our life be easier with without autism? Possibly but I’m sure we would have other issues to overcome. That doesn’t mean we would change our son but we would love to make the world easier for him. This is why Autism Awareness Day is a day that should be remembered, in the hope that our sons future world will improve with greater understanding.
This is really interesting to read and I can’t begin to imagine how challenging this must be at times. I’m going to share this with another blogger as her two year old has recently been diagnosed.
I am glad to read that there has been progress for you all since your son’s diagnosis. I really love ” That doesn’t mean we would change our son but we would love to make the world easier for him.” I completely get this as a parent and as someone who struggles with both mental and physical health issues. There is so much more that can be done to make society more accessible to those who are ‘different’ and we all need to work together so that we can help understand the challenges other people face and to help create a society which is better for everyone.
Since becoming a blogger and reading so many wonderful posts about Autism like yours, I’ve learnt so much about it and understand far more than I ever did before. It’s great to see awareness being raised through the power of blogs.
This is wonderfully written. I find it amazing the way we can adapt for our children and what you have written above proves that! xxx
This is such a good post. I don’t know anyone personally with autism but I knew it was autism awareness day because I saw lots of posts like this one and I’m so happy more people are sharing their stories so more people are aware. I’m so glad there has been lots of progress since his diagnosis and I hope it continues x
I’m a new reader-great blog! We can relate to the logos. Our son is 14 and has some language, but his best and clearest speech comes from reading logos and signs. He loves a trip to Home Depot to read each sign from each section-“Paint”, “plumbing”. Discipline has always been a challenge for us as well. We have 2 boys on the spectrum and our oldest is higher functioning and responds to different interventions than our younger son who has less communication. Things are moving in a good direction for them both and that makes my wife and I very happy.
Thank you for reading and leaving a comment. I’m glad your sons are doing well. Hopefully we will be able to work out soon what discipline works best for our family