one family's neurodiverse journey
Abrian has ALWAYS been fascinated by letters and has an incredible memory. He has favorite letters—he flip-flops between “w” and “y”—and his favorite toy is a bag of magnetic letters. We even threw him an alphabet-themed 2nd birthday party last year with books as favors, but really didn’t think much of this particular interest at the time.
Read MoreSuddenly the boy who talks too loud, or too closely, or too off-topic—he’s considered strange instead of interesting. The little girl with messy hair and mismatched clothes starts to get eye rolls instead of smiles when she approaches her classmates. I wish we could bottle up the general sentiment of acceptance that is so pervasive in preschool and kindergarten to help get us through the rest of school, once the judgment kicks in.
Read MoreAs a result of these meltdowns, we often opted out of going anywhere, instead choosing to let people come to our house. I particularly remember one outing we decided to partake in though—a group trip to San Francisco’s Exploratorium. Julian had just turned four and Elias (our second-born) was still a little guy, unlikely to find much interest in the museum. I debated whether or not I’d bring Julian solo (and have Shaun stay home with the baby) up until the last minute, but I did eventually decide to go that route. I’m going to share the details of this story in hopes that some of you reading may either relate to it or be able to draw some knowledge from it—perhaps you’ll find yourself even a fraction more understanding the next time you see a child “misbehaving” in public.
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