5 Parenting Truths Autism Has Taught Me

When I became a parent, I quickly realized the parenting truths that I thought were important turned out not to be!

Parenting loves to throw us curve balls, doesn’t it?

Today I’m welcoming Heather from Changed for Good Autism to talk about the parenting truths she has learned from having an autistic son for my series Voices of Special Needs.

But parents — take note!

It doesn’t matter whether you have an Autistic child or not.

These parenting truths are for all of us.

Be sure to hear from other special needs parents, too!

5 Parenting Truths Autism Has Taught Me

5 Parenting Truths Autism Has Taught Me

It’s human nature to assume that others perceive the world the way that we do.

We see the world through our own unique lenses, our own sensory filter, and we unconsciously assume others feel as we feel and want what we want.

I was reminded by a wise OT and SLP this week that my boy processes the world in his own unique way.

In school, noises in the hallway compete for his attention as the teacher presents a lesson, creating a noisy swirl around him, and he loses focus.

At home we sit down to do homework, but children playing outside, the poster on his wall, and the cup of colorful pencils on his desk compete for his attention as we work to finish his sight word page.

My son Ben lives in a constant state of hyper-arousal, which can translate into extreme joy when he’s happy that can quickly switch to angst and frustration when he becomes upset or overwhelmed by his environment.

Most of us live in a relative state of calm.

Feelings of anger, frustration, stress, sadness, or joy usually creep up on us slowly.

Ben flies between the extremes all the time.

There is nothing gradual about his emotions.

He can be excited one moment and crying the next.

And so I try to imagine his world.

A world that is louder, brighter, and often harsher than my own.

My brain automatically filters out extraneous sensory information so that I can focus and get my work done.

His brain does not.

His brain lets all the sensory information in, and this can fatigue him quickly.

I try to imagine living all day with the volume on life turned up to the loudest setting.

I try to imagine a day, or even an hour, in his little shoes.

And when I do, then my little guy becomes a superhero in my eyes. 

Because, every day, when I wake him up in his bed, he rubs his eyes and gets up without a fuss.

Every day he walks into school with a smile on his face, ready to face the day.

For Ben is an eternal optimist. 

Despite the mountains he faces in his day, he rarely complains.

He does his best.

boy in cape - parenting truths

Parenting Truths for ALL Parents

Here are five truths that I am going to try to remember as his mom.

I can’t promise to get it right every time, but I’m hoping that by recording them here, I can come back to them and remind myself as needed.

1) My priorities are not his priorities.

When I ask Ben about school, I used to ask him about what book his teacher read to him that day, what story he wrote during writing workshop, or what he learned in math  

Ben wanted to tell me what he ate for lunch, which friends he played with at recess, and what projects he did that day during art class.

When I changed the conversation and followed his lead, we had a much more animated and productive conversation.

In the past the conversation would fall flat.

Now I’m getting a glimpse into his day because I am learning to follow his lead.

He even told me about a book he heard on Dr. Seuss’s birthday without me even asking!

2) I am his mom first.

Those of us who are teachers often have a hard time turning off the “teacher talk” at home.

My educator friends have told me that they use their teacher voices on their husbands (who are none too happy about this).

My natural reaction is to approach Ben as I would a student in my classroom.

This just doesn’t work. 

When we would read books together in the evening, I would try to guide him through a beautiful lesson with a carefully crafted teaching point, but he just wanted time with his mom.

Now we meet in the middle.

I stop worrying so much about creating the perfect lesson for him and focus instead on building the love of reading and having him associate reading with snuggles with mom, wonder, and joy.

He still reads to me, and I read to him, but rather than making every moment a teachable moment, I’m much more focused on creating special memories and positive associations with books.

He has an excellent teacher at school who is providing him with the curriculum support that he needs.

I can reinforce as a mom by making reading feel fun, safe, and enjoyable to do while building his confidence and independence.

3) I need to let go of the urgent stuff and realize what’s really important.

It’s easy to lose perspective and forget how far we have come.

I remember the first unprompted “I love you.”

It wasn’t too long ago that Ben would only communicate with us to ask us what he needed.

Back and forth conversations weren’t happening at all.

I remember the moment when Ben asked his first conversation-starting question that wasn’t related to his basic needs.

Those things happened just over a year ago.

But yet, now, when he wants to talk to me, too often I’m busy with schoolwork, or cleaning dishes, or other distractions.

I’m trying to be mindful to stop what I’m doing, and give him my full attention to his silly stories and his “Guess whats?” so that he knows his ideas are just as valuable and worthy of my time as everything else that competes for my attention.

Last night, as I tucked him into bed, he leaned forward to give me a kiss on the cheek.

These are the moments that matter.

The rest can wait.

4) I need to see his strengths first.

Ben faces many challenges that can overwhelm both him and those who work with him every day.

It’s human nature to focus on the weaknesses first, but I’ve watched my little guy quickly become defeated with this approach.

One night I made him erase a sight word three times in an attempt to get the letters straighter, smaller, and following the correct pathway. 

Each time he wrote the word he became more and more agitated as my frustration crept higher and higher.

The next night I changed my approach, encouraging his attempts and providing him concrete feedback when needed.

I broke the task down into smaller parts and gave him examples, with a much more positive result.

While we must help our children with their areas of need, we also cannot ignore their strengths.

And so, now, I ask myself, “What is he doing right? What gifts does he bring to this world? What does he enjoy doing and learning?”

And I begin there.

Ben has an amazing memory and an uncanny ability to imitate voices and sounds.

He loved watching plays on the cruise ship and sings along to show tunes in the car with me every day, so I’ve signed him up for drama classes.

I’m hoping his strengths will shine on the stage, but if they don’t, we’ll try something else.

The point is giving him the opportunity to try.

5) I need to make decisions for him based on his needs, not based on what I would need in that circumstance.

I am not autistic so I recognize that I will never experience the world the way Ben experiences it.

Even though I make decisions for Ben every day, I have to be careful not to presume to know how it feels to live in this world as an autistic person.

And yet, I can take the time to understand his sensory profile, his processing speed, and his learning style.

And then, rather than dismissing his neurology because it is different than mine, I honor his needs whenever I can.

When I have a decision to make, I try to think about it from Ben’s point of view rather than my own.

If Ben tells me that he does not want to do the ride at Disney because the room is too dark… or noisy… I respect his need and we walk away (even if we waited in line for thirty minutes).

I also have to keep in mind that what may work for most kids may not be what’s best for Ben.

And when I take the time to give Ben what he needs, he astounds me with what is he capable of doing.

I am a person who functions best with a plan and a clear path.

Ben has taught me that it is okay to take life day by day, to step out of my comfort zone, to consider new possibilities.

And, every time I do, I am amazed at the results.

I may make mistakes, but I try to make the best decisions I can, based on the information that I have at the time.

Because he is worth the best I have to give.

A version of this post originally appeared on Changed for Good Autism. You can read more from Heather there.

Welcome to Voices of Special Needs Blog Hop — a monthly gathering of posts from special needs bloggers hosted by The Sensory Spectrum and Mommy Evolution. Click on the links below to read stories from other bloggers about having a special needs kiddo — from Sensory Processing Disorder to ADHD, from Autism to Dyslexia!

 


4 Comments

  1. These are good reminders for every parent. But I especially valued this post because it challenged me to think of what life might feel like for a child with special needs. Living life with the volume turned up to 10 all day—that would be tough for any of us. Thanks for this.

  2. Beautiful and wise.
    I can feel these words resonating in me as I switch from teacher to mom and head out to get my kids. They WILL be useful for BOTH kids!

  3. These are great lessons for any parent or teacher at any level. When I was a caregiver for my brother who experienced autism, it took me quite a while to really understand that he was so much more than a set of “behaviors”; to meet him on his own terms and see the full depth of his feelings and way of being in the world. Nice work, and I like that in addition to your realizations you included useful strategies like chunking things in smaller bits and providing examples.

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