Autism and Blog of the Week: My Son Has Autism

If you’d like to have your blog featured in this weekly series, please leave a comment below.

This week’s featured blog is My Son Has Autism written by Kristina Chew, mother of eight-year-old Charlie. Reading about Charlie at My Son Has Autism has almost been a spiritual experience. Kristina’s awareness and appreciation of Charlie is inspirational. She balances between taking care of Charlie’s wants and needs, which at times are hard to figure out, and at the same time showing him the unpredictable realities of the world around him that doesn’t always care about individual desires.

Like many parents of autistic children, Kristina strives to keep up with the latest literature and research on autism spectrum disorders. Because of her background in Classics (she has a PhD in the field and is a professor at St. Peter’s College), Kristina writes about autism from all angles – from poignant descriptions of her son, his relationship with her and her husband, and daily vignettes, to critical analysis of the overflow of information on autism.

In last Friday’s post, Kristina writes:

As I have written here, life with autism is certainly not easy and very often painful and sad. Charlie is not the “typical” 8-year-old boy on the beach. But there is no controversy about one thing: However neurologically disabled, however different, Charlie is not flawed. Charlie always bring good news into our lives. His story is a book that keeps getting written every day, and one that I always have time to read.

And I hope we will get to read more of Charlie’s story too.

For more on the genetics of autism, please see my previous posts:

• Serotonin Transporter Gene (SLC6A4) and Autism
• GABA Receptor Genes and Autism
• Finding Gene Gives Family Hope
• PRKCB1 Gene and Autism
• Autism Genetics