Autism Spectrum Disorder

[jimhines]

So a little while back, I was pondering how much to publicly share about family, particularly my children.  There was a reason for this.

Today we received confirmation from my son’s school that he meets their criteria for ASD — Autism Spectrum Disorder.

It’s not completely unexpected.  My wife is a practicing counselor.  I’ve got a degree in psych.  Both of us had noticed certain behavioral issues.

Jackson¹ is a brilliant little kid, and he’s very high functioning.  He is who he is.  A note from the school doesn’t change that.  What it does is gives us a way to make sure he gets the help he needs in school.

Next steps are to meet with the school this afternoon, and to talk to someone about a medical diagnosis.  (If he meets the school’s criteria, the odds are very good that he’ll meet the medical criteria as well, since the schools … well, since it costs them money to provide special ed. services, they’re motivated to minimize the false positives.)

I’m still processing this, and probably will be for a very long time.

I’m not asking for advice, and I’m not currently in a space where I’m interested in hearing it.  If you decide to comment and tell me what I should do, there’s a very good chance your comment will be deleted.

He’s a good kid.  I know he’s going to be okay.  I know the rest of us will, too.  But it’s hard right now.

I don’t know where I’m going with this, so I’m going to just share a picture.

(This was from two years back.  Jackson was sick.  It’s one of my favorite pictures.)

—

1. That’s the name he chose for himself for Daddy’s blog ↩

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Comments

[wyldbutterflies]

You know what? It is what it is and if you think he is brilliant, wonderful, magical, a-ok - then he is, no matter what. Heck, he could have been born blue polka-dotted with three eyes and a toothy grin and he would still be daddy's son (and knowing your fantasy worlds, you'd probably still love him as much). :)

It will all work out. Really, it will. You know why? Because he seems to have a strong family.

Well wishes and thoughts your way.

[jimhines]

Thanks. You know, given the health troubles he's had, I'm surprised he wasn't blue or multieyed. (He did turn orange at one point, but that was a baby food issue -- too much carrot.)