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Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects many children in the United States. As a young adult, I babysat for a young girl with autism. She was very much in her own world and I never once felt that she and I connected; it was an odd feeling. She was the only person I knew with autism until I became a parent. Now, every time I am in a social setting with other parents, I meet another parent with an autistic child. I am not exaggerating. According to Wikipedia, "there has been an explosion worldwide in reported cases of autism over the last ten years."
"Some estimate that autism occurs in as many as one United States child in 166, however the National Institute of Mental Health gives a more conservative estimate of one in 1000."
Autism greatly affects how children develop socially. Wikipedia provides some characteristics of children with autism:
"Children with autism often appear to prefer being alone to the company of others and may passively accept such things as hugs and cuddling without reciprocating, or resist attention altogether. Later, they seldom seek comfort from others or respond to parents' displays of anger or affection in a typical way. Research has suggested that although autistic children are attached to their parents, their expression of this attachment is unusual and difficult to interpret. Parents who looked forward to the joys of cuddling, teaching, and playing with their child may feel crushed by this lack of expected attachment behavior."
However, not all children with autism display these typical characteristics. Blogger Squid describes this as the "snowflake nature of autistic kids." For parents, teachers, and caregivers, it can be a challenge to know how to provide proper therapy for a child with autism; like a snowflake, each child's behaviors and needs are different and unique.
There are published books on the disorder of autism, but for parents of children with autism, there are few books that describe what the day to day life of living with an autistic child is like. To find those descriptions, to connect with other parents who have children diagnosed with autism, and to know that they are not alone, these parents turn to the blogosphere.
There are a number of blogs that chronicle life with an autistic child. These three are from the BlogHer blogroll. The writing that these moms do about raising their autistic children the best way they know how while being constant advocates for them in the health care and school systems is strong, moving, and eloquent. If you write or know of another blog you would like to share, please leave a comment.
Autismland: The Autism Reality Show starring Charlie
Written by Kristina Chew, a classics professor and mother to an autistic child named Charlie. In her biography, she writes:
"Finding out your child has autism is like the end of a love affair and the start of a new, lifelong, really beautiful relationship."
In a recent post, Kristina writes about how her expectations of age and developmental milestones have changed since the birth of her autistic son:
"When Charlie was a baby--apricot cheeks and smooth-soft black hair--I used to watch him sleep and think, if only he could always stay this little, this sweet babe in my arms. Often when he was a toddler and then preschool age I would stop short and push away a wish that his fifth birthday would take its time--might never--come. "Five" seemed like a magic number--seemed to be synonymous with kindergarten, not the self-contained autism classroom that Charlie was in at the age of five and up. "By the time Charlie is X years old he'll be doing this and I'll be able to get on with my life," was a thought I often thought, and often pushed away, as Charlie got older, bigger, and farther away from each developmental milestone."
Karianna
Karianna started her blog after attending last year's BlogHer conference. About her five-year-old autistic son she refers to as "Cat," she recently wrote:
"The Cat lives to confuse me. It is stunning how he can be a ball of mischief one moment and a complete angel the next. ...On the way to the school, I explained that we would need to wear a name tag to identify us as visitors. In the past, whenever anyone wants to put a name tag on the Cat he throws up his hands and shrieks. This time, he asked me, "What is a name tag?" I told him it was a sticker
