Thanks Ozark.

Very touching. Have no personal experience with autism but when I meet kids that do, I often think these kids are more "in touch" than we are.

Like very appreciative, curious, sensitive, to touch, sound, etc.

Thank you for that.

My sister which is 2 years younger is autistic (52). She has lived with my parents all her life as she cannot live on her own. My parents have sacrificed so much to make sure she is taken care of. God bless them!

very touching! Thanks for sharing, my girlfriend says i'm autistic ..

Wow man Count yer blessings. I'm going to stop drinking now and go mow my lawn. Then take my kids down to the pond and catch some frogs.

Wow! My 11 year old son has ASD Autistic Spectrum Disorder. He is highly functional , but struggles severely with social issues which can cause extreme amounts of anxiety. Gabriel (my son) is very curios but VERY to himself, I could imagine that was a treat for that young mans family. AWESOME

BGMike wrote:
Wow! My 11 year old son has ASD Autistic Spectrum Disorder. He is highly functional , but struggles severely with social issues which can cause extreme amounts of anxiety. Gabriel (my son) is very curios but VERY to himself, I could imagine that was a treat for that young mans family. AWESOME Your son sounds a lot like my sister, God bless them both!

My son Jesse was pretty introverted, and even played alone on the playground until this year. He's socially experimenting with seeing his friends away from school, and even has a little girlfriend that he plays with on the playground now, along with a young man he's been friends with since he started the preschool program. I'm sure it will come. Just stay encouraged and engage them as much as possible in conversation. I almost cry thinking about what it must have been like to be Jesse a couple of years back. When he was 4, he could get 2 different 3-word utterances together, but it wasn't really speech. Talk about frustrating! 2 years of speech therapy, and now he won't stop talking!

If you have autistic children around you, I encourage you to work at it, and engage them. The best practice they get is with the closest family. They DO get embarrased when they know they are doing it wrong, but be patient, and hang in there.

JD said, If you have autistic children around you, I encourage you to work at it, and engage them. The best practice they get is with the closest family. They DO get embarrased when they know they are doing it wrong, but be patient, and hang in there.

yes sir. my grandson is very self conscious of the people around him when it isn't close family and tends to be very quiet and withdrawn. We took him to lunch with us yesterday after church and had another couple with us that we hadn't seen in awhile and he refused to even order any food because he didn't want them to see him eat.

Thanks for posting Ozark, I have 4 kids and my oldest son Isaac has Autism, he is 14 now and getting ready to go to High School next year. It's been a really long 14 years with all kinds of therapy, people coming in our home and carting him to all sorts of programs to get him help, fighting with the schools to get him the help he needs. Now he is doing well and is in regular ed classes and pulling almost straight A's (except gym cause he can't run the mile in the allotted time...don't get me started on that one! ) He wants to be a mechanical engineer.
It's really hard on him socially because people don't get him. There are still days he comes home and goes straight to his room and cries for an hour because of the stuff that happens at school. I wish more people understood how difficult it is for people with Autism. My son will come home and "study" for hours basketball games, football, movies or music cause thats what kids are talking about so he will know about it, unfortunately he learns EVERYTHING about it and will try to explain in detail the reason of certain plays in football, etc. Which turns kids off
My son has the biggest heart of anyone I know and would do anything to help someone else. It's been a tough 14 years but, I wouldn't trade it or him for anything.

Steven