My son Chris was finally diagnosed with having Autism this past April had thought he had this disorder most of his life and the Doc's said no at an early age. I continued to read stories and articles about other kids and he matched a lot of the symptoms...testing was done and showed moderate autism, not mild and not severe but right in the middle. I was glad that finally maybe some questions will be answered why Chris does the things he does.
Chris will have 3 sessions weekly at 30 min. each to learn about staying on task, he tends to wander mentally. There is a good 5-10 second delay on most responses which gets frustrating at times.
He has his good days and BAD days:) and on his good days we think something is wrong and rationalize why he might be good and listens to commands etc, when normally he does his own thing. He fills his pockets daily with his goodies and everything must be in perfect order and place or his schedule is shot. He is very routine oriented, the same thing everyday: change throws a kink into the living process. The specialist will work to make my life simpler by doing new things slowly and at strategic times, like getting out clean clothes to wear to school in the evening instead of the morning when he is at his worst causing him to throw items and slam doors.
We are beginning to notice that lack of sleep causes him to be a grumpy teen-ager. I say he needs at least 8-10 hours sleep daily to function almost normal without being aggressive in his daily activities.
My biggest fear though is in large areas where he tends to wander physically off and doesn't look where he is walking. The least little distraction pushes him to a new location and me with my Retinoschis worry he disappears right before my nose [eyes]...this has happened on several occasions with my wife luckily finding him unharmed. In rest rooms he & i always go in together and of late he zooms out with me still in the stall and not knowing where he went . Many times I have waited patiently for him to come out but lo & behold he had already exited without me knowing it.
Chris' IQ is between 35-50 range with functioning age of 5-6 and motor skills are much better maybe 11-13 year old level. He has no concept of dates, time, money, seasons, days etc. Everything is always "Dad last night I", never today or tomorrow.
I hope this gives you a little insight into Chris' behavior and life skills. Any ideas or info on autism are welcome if you know of any good web sites let me know. I am in a autism support group on the net but nobody posts much and would enjoy networking with others who are dealing with autism in their lives. hawkeye@iland.net