September 26, 2022
Tell Them About Kids Like My Son
Dear Parents,
It’s that time again- the beginning of a new school year.
After the last couple years, I think we’re all ready to get back to some semblance of normal.
Most of us prepare children in the usual ways.
Open house, new backpacks, clean lunch boxes, lots of forms signed and last minute sneakers.
I need you to do something else, too.
Will you talk to your children about who may be in their classroom?
Tell them about the little people who are squares navigating a very round world.
Let me introduce myself.
I’m “that boy’s” mommy.
You may be familiar with him or he may be a new topic at your dinner table.
“That boy” is my heart.
He’s the youngest of four children.
He’s eight years old, a second grader, and has autism and a genetic disorder.
He also struggles with anxiety and ADHD.
He gets frustrated easily and sometimes throws things.
He loves swimming and playing chase with his siblings.
He’s an avid reader and can identify every country’s flag and spell places that I never knew existed.
Before Covid, he spent half the day in a classroom with his typically developing peers.
He was happy and honestly, there’s nothing I want more.
Well, other than for him to be accepted and loved, especially by his classmates.
Can you help me?
Can you talk about the Amos’s of the world with your own little people?
Tell them that there may be a child who is not quite like everyone else.
Maybe he doesn’t ask them to play.
Maybe she doesn’t answer simple questions.
Maybe he needs a friend to offer a hand to get to the music room.
Maybe she needs someone to say, “Let’s play chase” on the crowded playground.
Or join him in the shark tooth pit.
I remember his big grin when his classmates would vie for his hand in the morning.
If I were to give you a glimpse of my most secret heart space, you would see a wish.
A wish that he could tell me a name of a friend from school.
Help me hear that name.
Love,
Amos’s Mom
Oh, Adrian. I am convinced you are my sister from another mother. On the advice of another retired special education teacher friend, I began following you on FB about a month ago. I assumed I would be hearing hand-wringing diatribes and stories of denial and non-acceptance of your child’s autism diagnosis. You see, that was my experience with parents of children on the autism spectrum. For 30 years I took the brunt of their disappointment in my inability to “cure” their child’s autism or for their child not reaching their IEP goals (goals that I personally found unrealistic, but wrote upon their insistence). Instead I tune in daily to laugh and cry at your daily rigors, joys and shenanigans. Your sense of humor and forthrightness about your personal life is both uncommon and refreshing. Thanks for keeping this old special education teacher in stitches. You are truly a twisted sister.