Processing the Disorder
When you have a child with autism, they tell you all about the the generic symptoms. They talk to you endlessly about therapies and triggers. They may have to talk with you about an IEP for academic purposes, a 504 for behavioral purposes, and maybe admission into a SPED program. They tell you about the strange obsessions, the stimming, the aversion to too much stimulus. What they do NOT tell you is that when your child tells you he feels like throwing up, and you hand him a bag, he might ignore the bag and stare off into the distance blankly until the dreadful end. They don't tell you that he might be so very traumatized by the event that he'll accuse you of not driving home fast enough, or that you were trying to embarass him because he has to walk into the house with soiled clothes, and that all of these accusations will come out at the very tip top of his lungs as he flings his hands around trying to shake off the mess just as a neighbor is walking down the street. Of cou