More Speaking

Additional responses to “What’s the one thing you’d like to say to your relatives about your autistic child?”:

“Just love him and enjoy him.  Let me worry about the rest.”

“Thank you for loving him and treating him like the beautiful blessing that he is. We’re blessed and lucky to have family that ‘gets it’!”

Photo by Me-Liss-A (flickr.com)

“Sometimes (my wife and I) need your help watching him so we can spend some time on ‘us’.”

“How we live for the ‘us’ moments, and have learned not to feel guilty about it. If only our loved ones could understand.”

“Please don’t look at him for what he is not, but rather for what he is.  There is not one day that goes by that he does not amaze me, I wish you could see and understand the same.”

“Recognize some of the exact same ‘quirks’ in yourself.”

“Thank you for loving him and recognizing his gifts. Understand that spending time with him is all he really needs.”

And in response to the question, “What’s the smartest thing anyone ever said to you about your autistic child?”:

“He is charming and intelligent beyond his years”; “He is a tutor in his math class”; “Quite frankly, he is refreshing compared to the rest of the kids (in middle school)”;”We love him here at school and we will miss him.”

Thanks as always to everybody over on the LinkedIn boards.

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“Autism Parents’ Plea: Understand Kids’ Meltdowns,” from CNN.

IQ testing for children with autism, from about.com.