What is autism?
Autism is a developmental disability that is still poorly misunderstood. Autism is a lifelong developmental difficulty that impacts how an individual communicates and interacts with others. It also affects how an individual makes sense of the world around them. Autism is a spectrum, which means that each individual with autism shares common difficulties in social communication and restrictive or repetitive patterns of behavior or interests; however, the level of severity across these difficulties will impact individuals in different ways.
What a child with autism wants you to know:
- I am a child
- My senses are out of sync
- Distinguish between won’t (I choose not to) and can’t (I am not able to)
- I’m a concrete thinker. I interpret language literally
- Listen to all the ways I’m trying to communicate
- Picture this! I’m visually oriented
- Focus and build on what I can do rather than what I can’t do
- Help me with social interactions
- Identify what triggers my meltdowns
- Love me unconditionally