"He doesn't look autistic to me" "No, your son is not autistic. He looks nothing like my son and I would be able to spot autism and your son definitely does not have it"
Many of you know my son. He's a weirdo who has to do everything, and I mean everything. Last year he was in a club every single day and some days he had 2 clubs. He got all A's all year long, and he is usually the first one to jump up when we point out something needs done. He is doing sports this year and jazz band and God knows what else he decides to do! He is also the biggest sweetheart and definitely one we watch to make sure he isn't being taken advantage of. He is also autistic and has adhd. My son makes my life interesting and different compared to his sisters! Let's take a look on how we got here today.
When J was younger, I had noticed some things about him that were different. Not bad at all, just different. They way he used his hands, the way he would freak out (sometimes playfully but still a freak out), the way he would eat his food. I had a very hyper wild child who we eventually got diagnosed with adhd but this was beyond that. He wouldn't eat certain foods, he use to chew his food and then spit it out. He was done. He wouldn't actually eat what he chewed up though. He hated tags on his shirts. Hated them. Constantly would say they hurt his skin. He wouldn't wear some of his pants because he didn't like how they felt. Same with some of his shirts. He hated it if his socks didn't sit on his feet properly. He didn't like it if I changed things up. For example, I would say we are going to Walmart and getting these 6 items. If I deviated from that list in any way (add something or not get something), it would bug him and he would respond with but you said and repeat the items I was getting. He did the same thing with where we were going. I finally stopped telling him because it would upset him. He was a very particular kid in every aspect of his life. When he was 7, he had a nose snort that started when he got sick and continued long after he was fine. It only went away because his tonsils and adenoids were removed. What really got me was when he developed the lip licking tic. It started when he was walking to school in the cold and his lips were chapped and it continued on from there. 2 years we dealt with his lips hurting him and being super red and sometimes having a sore on them. It wasn't until he met with a behavioral counselor that we finally got the autism diagnosis and got him to stop licking his lips.
Before we moved from Vancouver, I was friends with a gal at our church who had an autistic son. I would watch him and how he interreacted with those around him and while it wasn't blatantly obvious, you could tell there was something different about him. I had mentioned my concerns over my son and was told by this friend that my son was not autistic. That he was nothing like her son was at his age (her son was a teenager by this point) and that my son is just being a boy. Those comments made me never pursue it. And I wish I had because just maybe, he wouldn't have dealt with the lip stuff if I had! Instead I chalked up his differences to him just having differences and left it at that. Then we moved to TC and got a new dr and the lip thing happened and then we ended up with his counselor that we had. We absolutely LOVED his counselor. Not only did he confirm what I already knew, but he worked with J on his emotions (he is very sensitive) and helped him stop licking his lips. It was amazing! Sadly we outgrew him and moved on. It felt good to have confirmation of what I already knew. Now we get the comments of 'oh he doens't look autistic at all!'. Almost like they don't believe me. They don't know him or his little oddities. I do and I know my son is. And there is nothing wrong with it. Just means he does things differently or thinks differently. And it means that if we need the extra help in school for him, we have it. We haven't needed it because J does really well in school!
Currently our biggest struggle is his tics. He switches from one tic to another and sometimes does multiples! We know about tics already as his sister has tourettes and we've learned a lot from her experience but they are different than J's. His come and go and they change. I actually didn't know autistic people could get tics till I talked to a girlfriend who has autism and started showing signs of tics around me. First he had the nose snort, than lip licking. Now he has 4 at once. He lifts his head like he's getting a drink, he brushes his nose like he has an ich, he moves his mouth to the side while crossing his eyes. This one prompted us to look into stopping them somehow. Poor J said the crossing of his eyes hurts him and he wants it to stop. He definitely struggled with it. So now he gets to try the meds his sister takes and see if it will help alleviate the tic. He honestly doesn't care about them and his friends and peers and teachers haven't really noticed them. He just is tired of the ones that hurt him! So, fingers crossed it works for him!
I'm very careful in how I talk about autism. I never want people to think I see it as a problem or an issue. I never want someone to ask me how to 'fix' J. He doesn't need fixed. He has little quirks that make him different but nothing that needs 'fixed'. He doesn't need meds (except for the tics and only cause it hurts). He doesn't need changed. He needs to be accepted for who he is. A growing boy with a few quirks.