We sat together on my bed at this time last year, Brendan and I.\u00a0 Every night for the whole month of April somehow he managed to pull himself away from his Kindle and his video games and talk to me\u2026really talk to me.<\/p>\n
For those of you who know and love someone with Autism, you know just how rare it is to have a conversation with someone who has an autism spectrum disorder.\u00a0 Even those who, like my son, are highly verbal, reciprocal and social communication are real struggles.\u00a0 Brendan much prefers to quote videos to me or rattle off facts about whatever his latest special interest is.<\/p>\n
But Brendan agreed to help me and others understand better what autism is really like.\u00a0 And so as we sat together on my bed, night after night, he let me ask questions and he did his best to answer them.<\/p>\n
While we know that each person with autism is different and has their own exceptionalities, there are some things that seem to be shared experiences.\u00a0 And those were the things we talked about.<\/p>\n
The following is a Q & A that took place between Bonnie Zampino and her son Brendan.<\/em><\/p>\n ________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n Bonnie:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 A lot of people with autism don\u2019t seem to like looking other people in the eyes.\u00a0 I know that you don\u2019t always like to do that.\u00a0 Can you explain why?<\/p>\n Brendan :<\/strong> \u00a0Looking into someone\u2019s eyes is like looking into the sun.\u00a0 It hurts.\u00a0 There are some eyes that I like, like my moms and some people that I know.\u00a0 But mostly eyes hurt and I don\u2019t like looking into them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bonnie:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 I notice that you always scream and run away when I turn on the vacuum cleaner and that sometimes at restaurants and at Walmart you will put your hands over your ears.\u00a0 I remember last summer when we went to Hershey Park you were really bothered by the people and the noise.\u00a0 What happens to you when things are loud?<\/p>\n Brendan:<\/strong> \u00a0Sometimes noise suddenly can become so loud that it feels like someone is screaming right in my ear. It hurts…like something is touching my eardrums and banging against my head.\u00a0 It makes me want to run straight out of the school and hide in the bushes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bonnie:<\/strong>\u00a0 I am always amazed at how you are able to remember a whole video or TV show after only watching it once!\u00a0 But then you always want to tell me the whole thing along with everyone else you see.\u00a0 Why do you do that?<\/p>\n Brendan:<\/strong> \u00a0When I watch something, I remember all of the words. Sometimes days later, something will remind me and then I keep thinking about it and I see the image in my mind and I HAVE to tell someone or it will make me feel crazy.\u00a0 I have to get it all out so it will go out of my brain.\u00a0 Every day after school I go in the backyard to talk out everything that is stuck in my brain and I act it out too.\u00a0 I like to do that in private.<\/p>\n Bonnie:<\/strong>\u00a0 A lot of people with autism like to spin around and they also like to watch things spin.\u00a0 Can you explain why that is?<\/p>\n Brendan:<\/strong>\u00a0 I love to watch things spin, like fans or wheels.\u00a0 And I like to spin too because I am fascinated with circles and the patterns that spinning things make. I can spend a long time just watching, completely absorbed in watching the object moving around in a pattern.<\/p>\n I also like to spin around because I like the way my body feels when I\u2019m spinning.\u00a0 It feels like the upper part of your body isn\u2019t really even on the ground\u2026like you\u2019re up in the air.\u00a0 That feels cool and interesting.<\/p>\n When I watch things spin, it\u2019s like an optical allusion.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t make me feel better if I\u2019m feeling bad; it\u2019s just really interesting.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bonnie:<\/strong>\u00a0 You really love making sure things happen when they are supposed to, like having dinner at 6:00 p.m. and making sure you are always in bed exactly at bedtime.\u00a0 When things don\u2019t happen like they are supposed to, it can make you feel pretty upset.\u00a0 Why is that?<\/p>\n Brendan: <\/strong>\u00a0In school, I have the class schedule in my binder.\u00a0 I know exactly what time every class ends.\u00a0 I have to watch the clock and I get very nervous when it gets near the time for a class to be over.\u00a0 I know that I have to get all my things together and get to my next class and I am very worried that I will be late.\u00a0 Schedules are good because I always know what\u2019s going to happen.\u00a0 If I don\u2019t know then I get worried because the next thing might be too far away or too soon.\u00a0 I like to have a specific time to go to bed because then I know how much time I have to do things and I can plan everything out.\u00a0 If I didn\u2019t know it would surprise me and I might not be able to do everything that I need and want to do.<\/p>\n Do you know someone who is living with Autism?\u00a0 What thoughts or perspectives would you like to share with us?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bonnie Zampino is the founder of A Special Space, Inc., a non-profit organization providing a therapeutic child development center that gives children on the autism spectrum and other special needs children an environment tailored to their special sensory, social, educational, and recreational needs alongside typically functioning peer models. Bonnie is also the proud parent of an amazing son who happens to have high-functioning autism.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We sat together on my bed at this time last year, Brendan and I. Every night for the whole month of April somehow he managed to pull himself away from his Kindle and his video games and talk to me\u2026really talk to me.<\/p>\n For those of you who know and love someone with Autism, you know just how rare it is to have a conversation with someone who has an autism spectrum disorder. Even those who, like my son, are highly verbal, reciprocal and social communication are real struggles. Brendan much prefers to quote videos to me or rattle off facts about whatever his latest special interest is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[219,185],"class_list":["post-3470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autism","tag-autism","tag-living-with-autism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n