Thanks Kev. He went through a phase of wanting to be a driver when he grows up - when pressed for specifics he said "taxi driver", but this is just a reflection of his obsession with cars and pretty much every form of transport. Now he is going through a phase of saying "I want to be a kid" when people ask what he wants to be when he grows up. I guess that is a good sign, that he is enjoying being a kid and sees no reason to change.

I'm hoping that he will be a lot more functional when it comes to relationships than I was for most of my life. I'm not sure how to achieve that other than giving him a loving and supportive environment and strong role models. For now he gets far more attention from females than he would like, he is a good looking kid.

His school now is very much geared towards the over-achievers, kids are expected to be reading and writing by the time they turn 5 and he is behind in that regard. But doing well with numbers, and light years ahead of the other kids when it comes to computers. But he *really* loves his school, so I don't see a need to change at the moment.

That is the whole point that I was trying to get across, that I can understand why they feel that way.

I absolutely believe, though, that Autism Speaks as an organization is ignorant and misguided. I don't know if it would be possible to try to correct some of their bad ideas and beliefs, rather than trying to tackle them head on and treat them as "the enemy".

I believe that many genes for exceptional talents are associated with the autism spectrum. That by cutting an autistic person out of the gene pool (wrong as that is already) you are not only eliminating the autism genes, but potentially you are "dumbing down" our whole species. How do you explain that to a parent who just wants their autistic child "fixed", or who would prefer not to have another who is the same? I don't know, but maybe that is one of the things that we need to be thinking about.

aww....thats so cute. he was obsessed with Daddy :3

thats what I was thinking bout too

Given what's expected of him in terms of reading, it's not surprising at all that he's behind.  His learning "style"; the way he learn's; is different from his peers.  He's still going to have to learn to read; even if it's like pulling teeth; in order to learn other things.  Reading is a building block for him to learn other things.  He may be slower than his peers and should not be subject to harsh treatment.  That will only make him develop an antipathy for any kind of reading which will not be good.  Once he's learned how to read; even if it's a couple of years past his peers; it will open new doors for learning other things.

I'll share this with you.  I knew the alphabet when I was very young.  When I began first grade, learning phonics was very fascinating for me and I was proud of myself I could now put letters to use and know how to spell.  Well the reading curriculum emerged into comprehensive reading.  That is where I got bored and daydreamed about the things that interested me (such as the moon).  By the time I got my report card, my parens were shocked.  It seemed like the end of the world for me.  I almost stayed back in first grade.  My teacher thought I was very smart but very lazy.  I struggled alot in first and second grade.  The perceprtion of myself was that even if I tried to be "good", I still ended up being a "bad" boy.

Oh, and someone in this string mentioned the General Electric executive being displeased that his grandson had autism.  Suppose instead, he supported his grandson working in General Electric laboratories and gearing him to a job in the GE R&D department when he grew up.  If he wasn't low functioning, he might have a very inventive mind.  He could invent something new for General Electric's product line.  The resources for him to develop in that direction were potentially readily available (facility lab space, money).

oh..they never tried to help? too busy panicking? :/ some parents get all worried about troubles too but also do a lot to help out their children, some still do have difficulties to take care of but it doesnt mean theyre not helping

as long as you understand theyre not trying to be betches. LOL.

Yes, very well pointed out. "Case" was a figure of speech. I'm not actually building a case for them, just pointing out why some people might support them on the basis that they are trying to "fix" autism. And fail to see how what they stand for and believe in is misguided and ignorant.

Seriously, one of the things I really like about this forum is that there are lots of people who are good at detail and who see things literally, so you don't get away with being vague and imprecise.

this is still pretty fresh in post numbers..I wouldnt be surprised if some people came along later posting narsty replies. like skyblue1 said its good you had the courage to share your feelings.

That sounds exactly like my son. He amazed me when he was 21 months old, I was reading a magazine and he started pointing to letters and saying their names, it seemed like he was trying to get my attention and it worked. He went to a good pre-school before he turned 2 and the teachers were amazed that he knew all the letters, numbers and colours. And now he is going through a phase of struggling to keep up with his peers. He'll be ahead of most of them in a year or 2, it is just a matter of making sure that nobody stresses out about his progress in the meantime.

I wonder if computer programs that help with learning reading may help. There Is Jumpstart.com which provides a number of CD-ROM and download games, as well as an educational 3D online world, which from what I gather is styled similar to MMORPG games aimed at kids. Leapfrog also has a lot of educational interactive games and programs.

Most of what I learned was through computer games, that were educational. I think maybe it's the concreteness of it that helps. You're either right or wrong, if you're wrong next time try to learn how to get it right. Many of the Jumpstart games have help buddies, so if your son gets something wrong more than a few times, the help buddy will pop up with a tutorial.

I hope this has been of some help, I watch a lot of cartoons, and am amazed at the variety of electronic learning gadgets they have for kids these days. When I grew up there was the Commodore 64 and Apple2GS so I do find myself a tad jealous of what the kids have today in terms of making learning fun, lol.