My eldest son, now 21, has ADHD and Moderate Autism.
Throughout his life he has struggled and faced many challenges in his own special way.
He has attended a special ed school in pre-school, tried normal primary school with an integration aide, and went to year 10 equivalent in a special high school,which really concentrated on living skills and has been of the most benefit for his adulthood.
Now he has a full-time job in a factory warehouse for both normal and disabled workers, a steady girlfriend for the past two and a half years, lives semi-independantly in a 2 storey townhouse (with daily supervision as to his safety, formal paperwork bills etc)
It has been a long, often hard struggle to get to where he is now and though he has limited skills in some areas, really shines in others....commonly known as splinter skills.
Since he was little,and was hardly verbal at all back then, his father and I ,being musicians, soon realized he had the wonderful gift of perfect pitch and could play chords on our piano by ear after hearing them played by us, even at the age of 3!
He has grown up with this talent and can now play his piano daily, which seems to keep him calm, when he isn't already listening to music in his headphones lol)
Linked with this, he also taught himself to draw the pianos and organs he saw in pictures in library books. (and now he downloads them off the Net). He won a prize in the Melbourne Show in high School for his art work, and has been on TV news a couple of times. Who would've thought.... one just can't predict when they are very tiny, how much capability they will have and how much they will achieve.
I hope this brings a smile to someone...never give up ...they have a special place to fill in this world
