quirks-and-chaos.blogspot.com

And if I had done many things differently, Tate might still be stimming his day away and unable to do so many of the things he can now, twelve years after his diagnosis. And all those things that you did not ask him to learn, and all those things he did not have to give up (because he has autism) have the potential to make his adult life so much harder. I asked my fish to swim faster, harder, and be a stronger fish, something that would be politically correct for a typically developing child, but not for a child with autism these days. Perhaps these children will be far better off and healthier than my son who was constantly asked not to stim, or to choose a more subtle stim at times verses an obvious one.

I need to hear your stories. I need to hear them all again. I need to hear more! I need to hear your voice.

When my youngest son Tate was diagnosed with autism I knew almost nothing about autism. For a while now I've had a list of words on my computer I planned to define in a blog post for those who are just entering the world I now live in. As I began to work on the post I had an idea. If you find any errors let me know and I will edit the photos and/or text.

Autism keeps Tate from being able to verbally communicate well and converse. For Tate to converse with someone in person the other person’s very presence seems to intimidate him slightly. Tate broke the news of Daisy’s demise to his brothers and sisters in a text message. Notice how he tries to correct the spelling of “aye” and how he picks up on the way they voted with “aye” and then wants to take a vote with “not” too.