Raising a Child with Autism

Raising a child with autism is interesting to say the least. When your child is not verbal or has little verbal skills, it can be very hard to meet their needs. Finding different methods to communicate can be complicated as all children do not learn the same way. The melt downs are really hard to deal with but 10 times worse in public! There are always people out there who give the "look" like you are a bad parent or your child is just a brat or better yet the ones who have to put their 2 cents in. At first the "look" is bothersome, but then you just get used to it, and at times tell the "looker" your child is autistic. Then you get to the point of why should I have to explain. Don't even try and explain autism cause you normaly get people who don't understand. Tell you kids will be kids or how to dicipline them. Untill you live with it or are around it there is a lot you just can't understand. Sensory issues are hard to cope with at times, too. It took a couple years to get a simple hug from my son. When a child is fixated on something such as books, puzzles, or blocks, it can be rather hard to redirect them to something else. Discipline is hard because when they don't talk or talk much, you don't know what they know and what they don't know. Finding an appropriate education for a child on the spectrum can be exhausting as some schools don't appear to have enough resources to deal with all these special needs children coming aboard...nor do they want to fork out any more money to send the child to a place that is more appropriate for him/her. My son is smarter than the average child his age but because he has special needs can not excel to his full potential because he is in special need classes with children of all kinds of special needs and with many different learning levels.