Be a normal kid. Have fun. Act silly. Blow bubbles in the summer breeze and chase waves in the ocean and jump into big piles of autumn leaves. Make friends. Go to birthday parties and sleepovers and on camping trips. What if I can’t, he asked. Try harder, they answered. Try bigger. Try with everything […]
Hello. My name is Carrie. I have five kids, and my second son is diagnosed with autism. He is fifteen. His name is Jack. It’s easy to think of Jack in terms of his deficiencies, or challenges. He has a language delay and social impairments and difficulty regulating his body. He struggles with anxiety. Over […]
Hi. My name is Carrie. I have five kids, and my second son is diagnosed with autism. His name is Jack. He is fifteen years old. As an autism mama, I have always told myself I will never give up on my son. Oh, I would have liked to, especially during that rough gastrointestinal phase […]
Dear Jack, As you know, you have autism. Autism is many things. It is a delay in communication and the inability to read social cues and obsessive, perseverative behavior. It is limited interests, and trouble adapting to change in routine, and challenges with sensory processing. It is anxiety, and uncertainty, and a life lived differently. […]
Tell me everything you know about autism, and in exchange I’ll tell you all I know about a boy. Tell me how people with autism can’t experience empathy. Tell me how they hate wearing clothes with tags. Tell me about the sensory processing, and the anxiety, and the meltdowns. And I will tell you about […]
Over the past fifteen years, I’ve gotten into some pretty awkward situations with my son Jack. He has asked women if they were pregnant when they weren’t, and suggested a man in Rite-Aid pick better pants. He has told his teacher her skirt was ugly, and asked the cashier if her mother was alive. You see, […]
Hi. My name is Carrie. I am married to a man named Joe. We have five kids, and our second son has autism. When it comes to autism, there are many, many challenges. Anxiety. Rigidity. Obscurity. Paperwork. Oh, how I loathe the paperwork. I mean, it is endless. The top of the forms are all […]
Did you see him? Did you see a tall boy standing off in the corner? He might have been biting his fingernails. He does that a lot. He set up the chairs. Carefully, he lined them all in a row to make room for you elderly aunts, your college friends, and your soon-to-be in-laws. Ten […]
I have a son named Jack. He is fifteen years old. He is over six feet, two inches tall, which is not all that tall. But when you see him, there is something about his size that takes your breath away. I can’t explain it. He has autism. He was born with it. He is […]
I have to be honest. There were times I tried to contain it, but containing autism is a little like trying to hold a flame between your fingers, or a tornado inside of a bucket. It doesn’t work. It burns. The bucket topples over and you are left with a lot of lightning and wind. […]