“What is Autism?” Good Question!

Daniel asked me “What is Autism?” about two weeks ago. Ariel and Joshua have asked me several times on multiple occasions which is why I went in search of age appropriate books on the subject hoping that it would help – they did for about two seconds, but then after those seconds came floodgates of questions from each child. I wrote this post “Am I Autism?” back in June with the many resources that I gathered then trying to help my kids accept themselves and understand themselves. All three of them have a sense of not being like other children, while at the same time being completely unaware of their differences – it is our “normal.”

I tend to fall into this too even with all of my years of being acutely aware of how different I am I still have a certain unawareness.

I am not sure if others have this same experience or not. I did not really have an understanding of this until the last two weeks with all my observing, thought wrestling, pondering, researching, reading, and connecting other thoughts/self-awareness. I have a challenging time with explaining Autism to myself. My research is to help my kids and myself try to understand our world better. It takes time to shift from thinking “there is something wrong with me” to discovering “There is nothing wrong with me at all.” However, it is a continual challenge for me when I read other blogs, books, and various types of resources where there is frustration, sadness, annoyance, or even anger at what their Autistic children/adults in their life are doing …

I do it too! (and so do my kids) 

Continued ... “What is Autism?” Good Question!