About this blog.

My son was diagnosed with PDD-NOS at 24 months. I created this blog to bring meaning to the often-confusing label. Sometimes I have answers. Other times, just more questions.

Friday, April 11, 2008

My journey.

A few posters have commented on this post, in which I expressed upset that my son would never be able to say "I love you."

The purpose of this blog is to provide a firsthand account of my journey. At the time, I believed the myth that autistic children are incapable of feeling or expressing love. In Engaging Autism, Dr. Greenspan dispels this myth. Of a group of parents he studied, Dr. Greenspan writes:

Almost all the parents tell us about wonderful, warm, intimate moments with their children at home, and say they would like more of these moments and wish their child could verabalize love and warmth. We show the parents how to create such moments by helping the child communicate his emotions more effectively.

(Props to Judith at Autismville for loaning me the book.)

Now a quick recap of where I've been and where I am - the stages of autism acceptance, if you will:

Stage One: Anger and denial
Stage Two: Emotional despair
Stage Three: Curiosity
Stage Four: Hope

Thomas Sowell argues that the mild autism diagnosis causes unnecessary alarm. I concede that the diagnosis was alarming and very scary. But it's only because the media and, sadly groups such as Autism Speaks, perpetuate the myth of Big Scary Autism. The answer shouldn't be to spare parents alarm by not diagnosing the children properly; the answer has to be to dispel the myth.

2 comments:

Another Autism Mom said...

My autistic son is the most affectionate boy I've ever seen... And he's been saying "I love you" back since he's 3 years old.

Even non-verbal children or the ones over-sensitive to touch have their ways to express love. Don't lose hope.

Laura said...

Thanks, that's encouraging to hear. :-)