My thoughts about my child with autism

Some of my thoughts that I posted:

We are family who has one child with autism. It is not a smooth life but we learned how to cope with the challenges. Sometimes, there are always the downside due to behavior issues. However, we did not limit our son on what the school can teach. The schools in the US consider students with autism as dumb. They may not say it bluntly but since they can not immediately give answers nor be able to process information as fast as the neuro-typical children, they are always left behind in the curriculum. The parents have to fight this hard battle in order for the child with autism to be educated. We did not leave our son in the hands of the school to learn. If we did, he might be one of those who can not even go beyond Kindergarten level. We never believe in medicating our child just to conform with the etiquette of the society.

The author's purpose is not exactly to lighten up the load of the families who have kids with autism. It tells you that some of these kids with autism can really manage something that neuro-typicals can not. Every child with autism is as normal as the next door typical kid BUT since the society have managed to segregate them without regards to what they can really do, many of the children now with autism will really grow up as adults with autism who will be a burden to society since that is how they have been brought up.

Mr. _______, am glad your daughter is not on the lower end of the spectrum. That is good news. You just need to be patient with her and never lose the hope. Mind you, my spouse hardly knows how to tie shoelaces and buying slip-on shoes solved the problem. Just have to see the flip side. My spouse is not on the spectrum and in fact, a director in a very big bank. There are those little and many things still that hound our son but we have our feet on the ground and really strive for him to comprehend better. Every small things he can do, is an achievement for us (even though we want him to be faster). :))

Mr. _______, oh, where can we find a person like you in the school system? You see, we have been to 3 states and they basically treat children with autism all the same. Just imagine, teaching over and over Kindergarten stuffs when he is in higher grades just because he does not communicate? He talks but hardly communicates. He is too independent without a voice. We have seen classrooms of students with autism especially the ones on the ABA classes that are so barren that the empty space is suffocating us. We try to remind them of the phrase, "the mind is a terrible thing to waste." They respond with we see things in real terms only. In one classroom, the students with autism are just playing in the middle of school hours? There was not a single book in the classroom nor are there any writings on the board. In another classroom, they showed us their students with autism who are using the computers and are navigating in websites. However, they locked them with starfall website (K and 1 stuffs) and they are in 5th grade? We have met so many teachers and they are all fearing that students with autism who are taking the nationwide tests because they will surely flunk? Hence, we are on our toes with the school districts that we have encountered. By the way, his K teacher told me, he can not add one apple and one apple (two drawings of apple) so he can not do addition much more subtraction (We were asking the teacher to give him materials to compute in addition and subtraction). If we have believed the teacher, then our son will be forever dumb (We have to be blunt here because in all the schools we have been, their perception is that students with autism can not go higher in life. Hence, they want to lock them with life skills teaching.) with adding one apple and one apple. By 2nd grade, he is very good in multiplication more than the students of his age and older.