Saturday, October 25, 2008
I suppose the time has come
J is 7 now and in the 2nd grade, he has Autism. This little "blob" is a portion from my regular blog. I decided to post it over in here in hopes that I might get some good ideas or insight how others have handled this. Thanks in advance. The bridge I need to start walking on has got me SKEERED!!
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J, is J. My joyous J. It's time to have the Autism talk, it's time to name it. It's not like he doesn't KNOW (duh). He has a para with him all day. He is has special services. He is getting teased. We knew it was coming, I thought I was prepared. I was not. It took me off guard. Can you ever really be prepared for that? I got to see it first hand on the field trip. Little bastards did it in front of me. Ballsy kids don't you think? Did J realize what was going on? I don't think so, but I'm not sure. What he did realize is that he was trying to be included in the play but was not being included and I'm sure he could not figure out why. Painful on levels I will never be able to express. When I addressed the issue in the parent teacher conference his teacher flipped her lid. Why didn't I come to her right away? Why? I suppose I needed to process it. I needed to figure out how I wanted to handle it. I want peer education, sensitivity training. Not in Autism, in kindness. We are ALL different. Thankfully, I am being supported. It has also given me the push to step onto the bridge I haven't wanted to walk. It's time for the talk. Somehow life has a way of making you put one foot in front of the other if you want to or not.
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I know there are books out there that I am looking into. What I'm really after are personal stories, experience from the frontlines!
My name is Becky, mom to J who was diagnosed at age 2 with Autism. I get through one day at a time the only way I know how, by putting one foot in front of the other.
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Great post, Becky. My son (age 12) is quite high functioning and his autism label is fuzzy to say the least, so I guess the way I've dealt with it has never been by telling him he has any sort of condition with a label. Instead, we have just had a lot of talks about people having different strengths and weaknesses. He despises the fact that he can't make and keep friends like his older brother. Yet, I continue to explain that his brother is different. That he has strengths in making friends. And that he will have to work a lot harder at the whole friend thing because it doesn't come naturally to him. And that is why he has to do social skills training with me every day, and his brother doesn't. We just focus on the strengths and weaknesses of human beings in general instead of making the focus on the label of autism...
ReplyDeleteAs an autistic kid who was bullied a lot, I can't offer any advice - the only thing I've found to deal with that is to avoid certain types of people - but I can certainly relate to that issue!
ReplyDeleteMean kids suck but sometimes Our ASD kids dont even realize they exist. My son is so into his own world. I am so thankful sometimes.
ReplyDeleteGreat Blog