This is a meme I made around April for Autism Awareness month.
We are coming up on 2 years since Jonah was “officially” diagnosed and it got me wondering.
Some people ask me how I “KNEW” Jonah was on the autism spectrum before we got him diagnosed…
Were there indications? Were there signs when he was little?
Short answer?
Yes. And no.
If he exhibited any signs of autism, I completely missed them. We took him to get him in for an evaluation based on the recommendation of a behavioral therapist at a local developmental center.
I knew autism “existed,” but the extent of my knowledge was limited to how actors portrayed stereotypical “autism.”
Jonah wasn’t like any of those “characters.” He didn’t exhibit any of the “classical” signs of autism… at least not from what I saw on television.
That he was not only autistic, but categorized with the MOST severe cases of autism (level 3) came as a complete shock to me.
Sometimes, I have to remember that the rest of the world outside of the “autism” community STILL sees autism the way I did, based on actors on TV and movies.
“The ‘prodigy.’ The emotionless savant…”
That’s NOT autism AT ALL… At least not for us.
That kind of “autism” doesn’t define Jonah. He is who he is…
And HE defines “autism” for us.