have a beautiful and rewarding trip. All kids just seem to grown up way to fast.

Kathy, I hope you and your family have a great vacation at Disneyland. It really is a magical place

That's awesome about your son's vocabulary. We have very good friends who have a little boy that's Autistic, he's 5 now. Unfortunately he has never spoken, he's very bright and can follow directions to a "T", but he just can't/won't speak. My friend, his Mom, tells me all the time that she prays for him to just say "Mommy, I love you", just one time.

It really made me see how sometimes we take the smallest things for granted.

I have an autistic son who's almost 4. He's also almost 4 1/2 feet tall, so everyone automatically assumes he's 6 or 7 and a spoiled brat. Then I explain to them that he's still 3 and he's autistic, and they immediately shut up.

However, the 2 coolest people I've ever seen have been within the last few weeks. We were waiting downtown to get license plates for our new car. The line was long and we'd been there for about an hour. There was a man behind us in... a leather jacket. My son kept leaning over to smell it. The man took it all in stride, even making the effort to talk to my son. I didn't say anything about it, because he wasn't complaining. After this went on for 30 minutes or so, the guy ASKED me if he was autistic. When I replied yes, he said he had an autistic daughter who was the same way. He took out this little leather... coin purse??? But it was empty. He gave it to my son. It made my day, and my son's.


The other was the lady working the desk at the air force base who was taking medical history down. It was taking a long time and my son was getting impatient. And he kept trying to grab her pen. It was a fancy blinking fountain pen that I was sure she'd either paid a lot for or someone had given to her. When we finally finished and were getting ready to leave, she gave him the pen and thanked him for being so patient.

Once in a while, someone does a little thing that restores my faith in humanity. Then there are people like the man in the leather jacket who make me think the gene pool needs a lot more chlorine

cinderspritzer

Wow I got some serious chills reading this

Did anyone see the show on TLC tonight about the family with SIX autistic kids? When you think you're having a bad day, as I did... one look at a family with challenges like that bring me back to earth.

Bless all of you with Autistic kids in your life!

Man, I just decided to do an "autism" search to see what came up because I knew that some of you had to be going through the same things my family is going through. This thread brought tears to my eyes! First because I was soooo mad about the leather jacket guy being so rude and then because other people...another leather jacket guy...were so sweet and caring.

My son (5, almost 6) has aspergers. He has absolutely NO filter when it comes to stating the truth. The head of the autism team calls aspergers children "self-appointed purveyors of the truth" and he completely lives up to that! If you're fat, he'll ask why....loudly! It has made for some EXTREMELY interesting moments (and a kindergarten teacher who is HAPPY she is skinny). Luckily, he's easy to love so people that count are very forgiving. Those that look at me like I'm a terrible mother who can't control my child when he's tantruming in the middle of the store or who get their shorts in a knot when he tells them they smell funny don't count anyway as far as I'm concerned.

Hey, if it looks like a duck....walks like a duck.....quacks like a duck.....who can blame him for saying, "look, a duck!"

my son, Zebedee, is 8 and has a speech delay. He didn't talk until he was almost 4 and then it was one word at a time. 'Cookie.' Bath. Milk. I can remember the first time he spoke a sentence. He was being ignored by the older kids...they were deep into a video game. Finally he pushed in between two of them and demanded, "Zebby wants a water!"

It was startling to hear him talk that we all just stopped in our tracks and stared at him. He got embarrassed, poor little guy. He takes correction to heart and gets deeply sad if he does things 'wrong'

He has no filter and with his habit of using the wrong word it can make for some interesting conversation. "Can I play with the water tub?" He wants to play with bubbles in the kitchen sink.

I found that the more I took him on errands the faster he gained the right words. Orange sticks became carrots and brown water became soda pop, you get the idea.

He still doesn't follow directions too well. I had to explain what the changing table was when I asked him to get the baby's shirt. The younger kids want to do the task for him but I tell them to stay out of it. Zebby needs to learn to do things for him self.

I'm teaching him to read. He can do well if we work early in the day and he needs more review. It is almost as if he forgets what he had down the day before. Lots of work but we have faith he will be a reader.

And I don't know what we would do with out his mini trampoline. He must jump for at least an hour total each day. He has rock hard abs and leg muscles.

He is just so beautiful ( my cutest son ) and he looks so normal.
People just don't get why he talks so loud and has a thousand questions about everything.

I wouldn't change him. He gives me a different view of life and such joy.
To me he is fearfully and wonderfully made...he's perfect.

I'm so glad this subject came up. Thanks for sharing your frustrations and inspiring stories.

blessings

mommachris

my situation is different, but i can appreciate. my daughter (age 14) lost her left eye in a very freak accident this past labor day wknd. before the colored part was made, she just had a clear glass orb that was attached to the eye muscles (this is what makes the colored part move). we had to learn, and help her learn, how to deal w/ people looking and everything.

kids that age can be rough, but thankfully, she attends a small school where everyone knows everyone. and i truly think she has adjusted as well as she has thanks to the kids at school. they have been so great about it.