Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm a 60ish father of a 5-year-old boy on the spectrum. He's a happy chap most of the time, living in his own world. He's starting to use some words, but mostly it's still repetition (currently of things said on Something Special, Chuggington or Tree-Fu Tom!). Eye contact is fleeting and obviously not comfortable for him, but he's quite sociable otherwise – and he loves hugs and tickles. He's a pretty easy boy to parent, in fact, with few issues around routines or tantrum-inducing dislikes, and quite independent. But he's clearly not going to have an easy path through life, and it's hard to see him struggle with things that kids half his age have mastered long ago. At my age, an uphill struggle seems even steeper than it would have 10 or 20 years ago.
This forum offers no facility for private chats. You could both go somewhere like Mumsnet where I think you can PM people.
CliveC I can understand your worries about your son's path though life. As someone nearly the same age as you I can look back and say that I wouldn't be any other way. I can't imagine how boring it must be to be 'normal'. Your son will have a diffferent outlook on life from most people, he will have different strengths and a hard time getting them valued but there is no reason why he can't live a happy and fulfilled life.
Your son may struggle with some things, for instance I couldn't tie shoelaces until i was 12 and my mother gave me a lot of trouble over it. But we just develop at a different rate and in a different way.
Our knowledge isn't platformed the same way as NT people's. We can grasp complex scientific theories and not be able to do our laundry! But the world is coming to see that we belong to another neurotribe and we're not faulty just limited edition.
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