by Pat on Feb 28, 2009 at 5:29 PM
Filed in Autism Family Facts | Parenting Autistic Children | Stories from Readers
My son Robert was diagnosed back in 1993 in kindergarten. He is 21 yrs old today and a great joy in our family. He was diagnosed with the high functioning autism. From the time he was 8 yrs old to today he does practically everything for himself. He cooks, cleans and helps around the house. When we lived in California he learned to ride public transit, thanks to the wonderful people from the Salvation Army who help with children with disabilities. They found him a position stalking shelves at Michael's and the Salvation Army. He is very self-sufficient. Living in Oregon I have yet to find something as wonderful as we had in California. When Robert was in grade school we found that writing down his schedule for the day helped him out tremendously, he was able to cope with the changes that came day to day. We have never treated him different from his 3 siblings. He got punished just like the rest of them. I could not imagine not having him around. He is the light of my life and every breath I take.