What is a day like in our house. To be honest, it probably isn’t much different to anyone else’s home, maybe a little manic seeing as there are seven of us in total and it’s not a very big house. Two of my children have autism, one is 25 years old the other is 7 years old.
If you meet my 25 year old would you see that he is autistic? Maybe if it was a photograph you wouldn’t be able to tell. If you came to our house or saw him in the street you might think he looked a little different, walked a little different, talked a little different. Would you know he was autistic? Maybe, I suppose it depends if you knew much about the condition. You would certainly pick up that someone was not quite typical about him.
If you met my 7 year old you’d probably have more trouble figuring out that she was autistic. She’s immature for her age but so are a lot of 7 year olds. She looks like other children and plays games like other children. She gets obsessed over things, but then so do a lot of 7 year olds, she likes to be in control all the time, some may call it bossy. She sucks her clothes and messes herself and has problems drinking from a regular cup, would you notice, would you call it autism?
They say autism is the invisible disability. It’s true that autistic children and adults do not have particular physical features, although I’ve heard people say they think they do. Having autism does not necessarily mean that you will have physical disabilities, maybe this is why it’s called invisible? Autistic people can behave like any other person at times, maybe that’s why it’s called invisible? Anyone who knows someone who is autistic will know that the condition is very visible most of the time.
When both of my children were going for diagnosis the first stage was having them observed by professionals, they seemed to find enough evidence in their observations to warrant further investigation into autism.
Is autism invisible? It seems to me that it is more often visible than invisible and with more awareness people will view even younger children as being autistic and therefore unable to control their behaviour, rather than just seeing them as ‘naughty’
I’d love to hear your views.
Sounds as though your life is hectic and you have more to cope with than most.
I have no experience of autism and cannot begin to imagine what life with two autistic children must be like. I can only guess that you need nerves of steel and the patience of a saint.
Very insightful post – Thank-you
Really interesting reading, I have no experience of autism. It must be very hard and frustrating to live with other peoples' predudice. We should all take time to learn more. #PoCoLo
Thank you for sharing this post…its great that your are sharing your experiences to raise awareness x
What a great post, I have very little awareness of Autism but I know there are more people than we are probably aware of xx
A really great post, I love reading your blog. I don't know the answer to your question I'm afraid but awareness of autism seems much higher now than it used to be. If its being diagnosed earlier, does that then mean there is more support available sooner?
It's so important that awareness is raised about this issue. There's a little boy in my son's pre-school class who's probably autistic, and is going through the assessment process. The teacher's brilliant, but there's still a lot of stigma attached, and I can see that other parents can sometimes be less than charitable…it's difficult for all involved, I think.
This is such an interesting and Informative post. It must be so hard for you. I find it hard enough being a parent so I think you do an amazing job. Thank you so much for linking up to PoCoLo and for your amazing support – I hope I can support you as much xx
I had never thought of it that way around – I usually see it as invisible in the sense that people don't understand why my child behaves the way he does and sometimes I wish I could put a sign on him or me to explain. But the fact that it is those very times that it is clear that there is 'something' going on – perhaps its not so invisible after all. your post has certainly got me thinking – thank you xxx