Autism Awareness Day 3

Autism Awareness Day 3 - Never mistake a lack of verbal communication for a lack of intelligence. Just because a person can not or has difficulty speaking does not mean they are not intelligent. In my opinion people with Autism are kind of like someone who is blind. What I mean by that is that a blind person tends to use their other senses to help them navigate since they can't rely on their vision in the same way that children with Autism find other ways to communicate their needs and wants since they can't rely on verbal communication. A blind person would tend to hear things that an average person wouldn't even notice and it seems that my children also catch on to things that would completely escape my attention.

This is why it is important to show a child with Autism the same respect as you would show anyone else. Do not talk about them in any sort of negative manner in front of them. They can hear you and even though they may not understand every word you say they do understand a lot of what goes on around them, much more than you may realize. For example one time when I was talking to John, Gatlin got very upset about something I said. It took me a bit to figure it out at first, but once I did I realized how much he really listens to what we are saying. You see I was telling John that I need to go to the store to buy something for a recipe I was making. Right after I said that Gatlin got very upset and started telling me "NO" and "ALL DONE!" Finally I figured it out, even though I wasn't talking to him or even looking at him, he had heard me say the word "buy." He was upset because he mistakenly thought I said the word "bye" and he did not want to leave the house. He did not want to go "bye bye."

Now in this example he had my meaning incorrect but the point is that he was listening and paying attention to what I was saying. This is just one example I can think of but there have been many times that he's caught on to what we were talking about. A lot of times he gets it right too, he knows exactly what's going on or about to happen. So never under estimate a person with Autism. They are just as smart as you or I, maybe even smarter from what I've seen.