For those who don't know, I am not autistic but I am the mother of an awesome boy who is. I wholeheartedly agree with your statement "The pain of being autistic is not due to the autism itself... it's the pain inflicted by others because of having it." During his short time in "therapy" I saw him unhappy and I saw those working with him taking credit for every advance that he made, had I not been paying close attention to what he was 'saying' (even when he was non verbal) I may have never noticed. He is not currently receiving any type of therapy and we homeschool, there is enough time later when he is better equipped to deal with it to face the predjudice behaviors towards autistics (that are often all the more easily inflicted because they come under the guise of 'helping')
Right now he is happy, well adjusted and just through his own natural inclinations starting to interact with others more and more, age wise he is in grade K but knowledge wise he is at about 1st grade level, of course if they tested him it would, in all likelyhood, still result in him testing as cognitively delayed because he doesn't test well.
It is as important to me that he have good self-esteem and fails to know the fear I hear adult people with autism repeatedly talk about as it is for him to have any skill. After all, what does it really matter if he can communicate with others if he believes himself flawed and unworthy of them?
Right now he is happy, well adjusted and just through his own natural inclinations starting to interact with others more and more, age wise he is in grade K but knowledge wise he is at about 1st grade level, of course if they tested him it would, in all likelyhood, still result in him testing as cognitively delayed because he doesn't test well.
It is as important to me that he have good self-esteem and fails to know the fear I hear adult people with autism repeatedly talk about as it is for him to have any skill. After all, what does it really matter if he can communicate with others if he believes himself flawed and unworthy of them?
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