Autism Wishes You Knew: Summary And Analysis

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As I read Chapter 1 of Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew, I kept referencing my sister and her twenty-year-old son with autism. We all began worrying about Joey when he was about 12 months old. He wasn’t babbling or making sounds. He wasn’t meeting cognitive milestones. He was tested for hearing loss. The results were that his hearing was fine. My sister knew something wasn’t right and she pushed for more testing. When the test results came back that Joey had autism our family all had the similar reaction as to Notbohm, “it was a scary moment, because that one word scrambled my image of my child’s future and tossed it into unsurvey terrain. Perhaps the most penetrating dread known to humans is fear of the unknown, a fear …show more content…

30) When Joey was about three-year-old, my sister took him and his four-year-old sister out for pizza. Joey at this age was nonverbal. He knew some signs and used some picture therapy. While waiting for the pizza Joey became upset and began making loud noises. My sister trying to figure out what was upsetting him, realized that he wanted his pizza. He did not understand that the pizza had to cook, and that he would have to wait. His protesting grew louder and he began to throw things that were within his reach. Customers began looking at her and making comments such as “she has no control over her child”, “he is spoiled”, and “he must be retarded”. The server at this point came over to her and told her that they had to leave if she could not control her child. Needless to say, my sister was mortified and upset. Flash forward twenty years, Joey is a Level 3 on the autism spectrum. He has some verbal ability, but will still exhibit what society considers inappropriate social behavior. My sister will just explain, “I am sorry if my son is acting up, he has autism and sometimes becomes upset. Thank you for your understanding”. People have responded positively to her and being able to express what is occurring has made her more confident about taking him

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