I can't vote because I don't see my response: I don't care.
I already have a child (23) who I'm positive is on the spectrum but he doesn't believe in psychology--so he doesn't even believe my diagnosis! (hahaha!) It's strange to think I had a child because I never thought I would--I believed in Zero Population Growth for a long time.
I only got diagnosed a couple of years ago and even then I wasn't sure about it because of all the hassle I got from not only the Kaiser psych who gave me the test but because my friends thought I was being faddish. I have no ieda why, but there it is. But this is off the point.
The point is that while raising my son I somehow figured out that he needed special accommodations for different things. Even though I didn't know it at the time, I think I recognized his problems because I'd had similar ones. I volunteered a LOT at his schools until he got into high school. This way, I could talk to the teachers when they'd try to make him sit down and not help others with their work because he was finished and bored; stand up while doing work; blurt out answers without raising his hand; freak out in kindergarten when the teacher wanted him to play Elvis at the Xmas show, etc.
That is how it all got started. He wanted to play Elvis as long as all the other kids were next to him on stage playing Elvis--that teacher tried to tell me he wasn't mature enough for 1st grade, so I began volunteering a crapload after Christmas break.
My son is really smart and very stubborn, but I wouldn't want him to be anything but who he is.
07 Jun 2012, 10:23 pm
