My Mistakes

We all have done it. Made little oops that we thought did not effect our kids too badly. However, when raising an autistic child, the little oops manifest into perpetual oops. I have learned that although Wayne is my first child, there is no going back to correct my mistakes, there is just countless hours of reteaching better habits of the bad habits I have formed.

Mistake 1: Comparing him to others: Wayne is a very unique individual. No matter how much I compare him to others, he will never be an average child. The autism world calls average neurotypical. He has his own unique strengths and weaknesses. All I can do is identify the weakness and help him learn strategies to overcome those weak areas.

Mistake 2: Assume that if he did it once, was told once, or it happened once that it is learned: Part of Wayne and autism is pervasiveness. In other words, he only learns or can do what is repeated in a routine format. Anything out of the routine or slightly change the behavior or outcome, he has not learned it.

Mistake 3: Lack of schedule. Wayne and I lived for years by no schedule. This means the little boy who looked for meaning in every activity and needed to know what was going to happen next, never had that. Since we have added a schedule in our life, Life for Wayne has been much better.