The Autism Question

Today, Austin asked me "How much autism do I have?"  I was a little surprised that he asked me but I knew the day would come when he would.  I was reading an article on my computer in my room about the autism rates increasing to 1 in 68.  He saw was I was reading and this is what he asked me.  I asked him what he thought autism meant and he said it is "someone who is very smart, like Einstein" and I told him that is true but that there is a spectrum and not everyone on the spectrum is Einstein.  I tried to keep it as simple as possible.

We asked the Psychologist a while back, should we tell Austin he is on the autism spectrum.  She said to wait until he brought it up or asked.  Not to make a big deal out of it.  So I did my best to stick to her instructions.  She gave an example of having red hair, I am the same as everyone, I just have red hair; different.  I gave this example to Austin and he seemed to get it.  I explained to Austin that people that have high functioning autism like him, just think differently.  I gave him a few examples of what he excels at and what challenges he may face.  I also told him, we all have strengths and challenges.  (We did speak briefly with Dad too but Austin and I discussed mostly between ourselves.)  He just discussed back and forth like we were discussing how to make a cake.  He did tell me he has thought he was born on the spectrum.  I did tell him that indeed, he is on the autism spectrum and it is not a big deal.  I asked him if he knew anyone else on the spectrum and he said "no".  I explained to him that he does have a friend on the spectrum and he got very excited at how much they have in common.  He thought that it was "cool".

Interestingly enough, Austin has just gone through some testing and we are waiting the results of the assessment from the Psychologist.  She seemed very pleased with how much he has progressed.  He is doing very well. :)

I answered as many questions as he had and he really did not seemed too phased.

Light It Up Blue on April 2!

All the best! *HUGS*