My son was diagnosed July 2, 2012 with classical autism. Non-verbal. Looking back, I know that I went through some things that I didn't necessarily need to go through. When my child was diagnosed, I went on youtube and typed out "autism" in the search engines. Today, two years later, I did this again to see if I'd have the same results. There were a few good videos, but there was also the video that said, "THIS is autism." A parent on the search of "what" autism is, where do you think they'd end up? Watching the video that is supposed to be conveying "what" autism is, but not necessarily true to their child. It may be what autism is for the child who is in the video, but going into this, I want you to take a few things with you:
1. The autism spectrum is vast. It has a HUGE umbrella that covers a child who is highly effected, to the "you'd never know," slightly effected.
2. What autism is for one child, doesn't mean that it will be the same for your child.
3. If you have met one child with autism, you have met ONE child with autism. Every case, is unique.
4. The sadness, that you feel today-- will linger, but won't be forever. It may revisit some time, but it's when you will need to put things into perspective.
5. The best place for information on autism? Autism speaks. http://www.autismspeaks.org/
6. Something else you should know? Not everyone is on board with the puzzle piece being the icon to represent autism... lol
This has been my experience. While our child is different, and our walks may be different, we hopefully have one thing in common. We love someone with autism. :) Hopefully, this will prevent you from enduring undue heartaches.
