newbie....parent of autistic child

I have just signed up to the site so I will introduce myself (without names)

I am the dad of a 5 year old recently diagnosed as being on the spectrum.

My son has always seemed like a normal child in our (parents) eyes. He has an older brother and sister and a good relationship with both, more his sister than his brother due to his brother being a teenager but they still get along great!

When our son was at nursery, aged 3, his key worker noticed some differences in our son compared to the other children and suggested we spoke to the child development centre for an assessment, 2 years on and he has his diagnosis as being on the spectrum.

As we have always seen him as a normal child, I personally have no idea on what to watch out for, if anything, he has opened my eyes to a whole new world!! At 5 years old his knowledge of technology is beyond me, it got to the point we had to have broadband removed as he literally became the computer, he now only has his Internet access via my own mobile phone. He absolutely loves wildlife, he has plenty of pets (tropical fish tank, goldfish tank, African clawed frog, 2 cockatiel,  3 mice and 6 cats!) and wants a parrot aswell but he can talk about all his pets along with other animals, he loves the sea life centres and often says we should be the ones in the tanks and not the animals. He loves nature,only 5 year old I know who asks me to buy him a pop up green house, plant pots, soil and seeds then will spend time potting things and watching them grow. As I'm originally from a big city and moved to a small town, my lifestyle has always been hectic so I have never stopped to look at the world around me, my son has opened my eyes to a lot of the world, when I see a flower, it's a flower, a bird is a bird but to my son, a flower is the most beautiful thing in the world, he'll describe the colours, the smell, every minor detail and it really does make me stop and look at things differently even when he's at school and I'm going about my daily work.

So what I see as a normal child is actually someone very fascinating who is also teaching me a lot as he grows, I've worked with disabled people in the past (having a disabled younger brother) but this is a new learning curve, admitted it can be stressful but at the same time it's enjoyable! I will be posting in other areas of the site (parents and carers section) and also reading posts to learn more aswell as trying to get involved in conversations where possible.