High-Functioning Autism Through Mom’s Eyes

I might have some more people seeing this blog now. I sure hope so anyway. Can I have your attention for a few minutes? Do you want to learn something new?

The media has done a wonderful job of getting the word "autism" into homes and conversations. Cameras have followed families and young adults into their private and personal lives to show how autism has an effect on more than just the individual challenged with it. The camera has shown fear and frustration on children who have so much to offer but can’t verbalize it. It has shown exhausted mothers and fathers trying to find ways to cope with challenging behavior at the grocery store or in a restaurant. Celebrities have told their stories of success, failure, opinions on therapies and causes. You’ve heard some of this, right?

What the media hasn’t shown yet, at least from what I’ve seen, is those people who will fall through the cracks unless someone is a strong advocate and never rests.

What does high-function autism (HFA) mean anyway? Is it different from Aspergers? What about PDD-NOS? For our family it means we feel blessed to have a child who speaks and is considered very high functioning. He has a lot of struggles getting the right words out and often ends it abruptly with, “Nevermind.” Sometimes I see it as a form of silent autism because so many people have no clue our son has any special needs.

Why do I use the term silent?
When he scratches his back it’s not because it’s an itch. There are hives covering his entire torso because he’s worked up about something happening and internalizing his fear/worries/anxiety. But you see him scratching an itch.

When he stomps his foot on the floor you see a kid working cause and effect. He’s doing it for the deep sensory impact it’s providing his body. Shortly after that, he’ll be jumping from the highest point of a couch or playset onto his knees. Makes me cringe just thinking about what his knees will be like at 45.

When he’s trying to tell you a story, you hear him stumble on a couple words. Those words never come to him and if he does get something out without your help, the word is wrong. An example of this is if he wants to say, “Would you like water in your cup?” it will come out, “Would you like water in your bucket…I mean, um, not bucket….I mean cup?”

Buddy was at a birthday party this past weekend. It was a bowling party, something he’s really enjoyed lately. After 2 short hours, he was ready to leave. He was overwhelmed with the lights, the music, the massive projector screen playing a movie with no sound. The arm that holds the pins while it’s pushing the tipped ones out of the way was a complete distraction. How does the ball come up that shoot? Where do those pins go anyway? Who is working the machines in the back? I had to bring him back to reality after each roll of the ball. Sure, that’s an attention-span issue, I understand that. But he’s on medication to help that. If he wasn’t on that medication, how would he have been? He’s also on another medication to help with the worries and hives, yet he still was covered in them all day yesterday.

Why do I care? Why should you?
Buddy will not fall through the cracks on my watch. He will not miss out on academics because I didn’t push to get something to happen. He will not slip into a spiral of sensory overload because I failed to recognize his needs and do that beanbag sandwich. He will not miss out on most normal kid activities because I didn’t do my research first on how he can get the most out of it without breaking down. He is my son. I do everything for him.

BuddyBoo Stationery also cares. Since inception, my first priority is to pay it forward. So with each purchase made with BuddyBoo, a donation is made to making sure autism is not a feared disorder and making sure autism research continues to move forward.

Why should you care? Because if you’re reading this, you know autism or you know me or you know Buddy. And now, officially, autism has touched your world. Please spread the word, spread this blog posting, and follow any of the links I have placed in the blog above to educate yourself more on autism and its effects on people. Most importantly, believe you can find the beauty in everything around you. I believe in the beauty in my Buddy. There is so much more to him than autism. While I need to focus on it more sometimes than not, it’s so his world can be as normal as possible so others can see his beauty as well.

Thanks for reading, thanks for sharing with someone else.