Autism Speaks

Don't pass this off. Let it helps you get some understanding of people with special needs.

Courtesy of Mei Leng.


View Autism Everyday video at http://www.autismspeaks.org/sponsoredevents/autism_every_day.php
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I think this is a great video clip of explaining to someone how autism is and how it affects a family's life as well. I thought they did a great job with this video.

This video made me cry because it is so close to heart. It reminded me of how much we had also been through when Joel was a baby and later a toddler. There was so much struggle in handling him and also bringing him out to public places. There was also so much time, energy as well as $$$ in trying to teach him how to communicate and making him talk and sit down. The stress of finding him a school since there was limited vacancy and waitlist was long too. There were also disagreements and arguments with my husband about how best to handle Joel and how to educate him etc.

Life was really tough at that point.

But the video also made me realise that Joel has come a long way now and that he has indeed improved a lot. He may never be a normal person or he may never be able to communicate with me other than his immediate needs or he may never be able to be fully independent and he still exhibit autism like traits like flickering of fingers, jumping or shrieking at times with public staring straight at our faces (which i am quite use to it already.. i too have developed a really thick skin..lol!), but on the whole he has indeed improved a lot. He is now more compliant with our instructions and he is a lot calmer and also understands a lot more too. Although his vocab is still limited to 2-3 words sentence structure, at least he still tries to communicate his immediate needs. His handwriting is atrocious but he is still improving. From not being able to hold a pencil properly 5 years ago to being able to write his name and A-Z 1-10, so to me I think he has indeed come a long way. I do not entirely buy into the idea that before 5 years old is the window of opportunity or for them to turn around, because i still see Joel improving everyday and learning new things as he grows older.

Now that Joel is 13+, i still see the years ahead as a challenge for us and but most importantly, even though he is autistic, he is still our son and we love him all the same, autism and all. :)

Peggy