My son Joshua was always different, more so to others then me as to me he was just my beloved shy, first born son. He was late to talk and then struggled with his pronunciation for the longest time. It wasn't until year 2 at school that we started to realised there was more to this,and he wasn't the 'naughty boy' he was being labelled as. Learning to live and grow with autism as a family presented its challenges thats for sure but it also made the road for an interesting and fulfilling journey.
Fast forward, after a few years of us all learning to live with this new knowledge and he is now 14 and again struggling. What a crazy mix teen hormones, starting highschool and autism! I should have known this year was never going to be easy. When you take in to account he hates change in routine and has sensory issues and very rigid thinking, highschool was never going to be a walk in the park. Joshua has never liked school and nearly every stressful issue he has had, has been related to school and the lack of proper support for spectrum kids in mainstream school. I worry a lot about him finding his place in this world. I worry about him finding love and being able to support himself and live independently.
My personal biggest challenge has been shifting my own thinking from focusing on the stress Joshua's disorder brings to our lives and the daily chaos it can bring. To focusing on the inner stress Josh deals with everyday and that he doesn't purposely wish to hurt anyone. To some they may consider it just an excuse but A LOT of things are out of his control and we all have to learn to be more tolerant and help Joshua weather the storm that brews inside him.
With all that said he has this amazingly talented mind that I'm so jealous of. People on the spectrum may not have the best social skills but they do have amazing gifts that we can all be in awe of.
Katrina Noris xx
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