My son Luca is 9 years old and he
has never been like other kids. Some children with autism
develop like "typical" children until the age of 2 or
3. They talk, play, smile, laugh and develop personalities and
friendships just like their peers. Then, without warning, the
child you love and would do anything to protect begins to vanish
in front of your eyes. The talking goes quiet, the laughter fades
and the inner light that animates him (or more rarely, her) flickers
and seems to almost go out entirely.
Your child begins to behave extremely oddly - to rock, stack
objects obsessively, wave hands in front of his or her face for
hours, spinning, screaming, crying, unable to communicate. You
watch, your heart breaking, as this process steadily unfolds and
there isn't a damn thing you or anyone else can do about it.
From that point on much of your life will be devoted to trying
to pull your child back into the outside world.
Although we too are always trying to pull Luca back into our
world, we were spared the experience of having him slowly fade
away. It was clear from the start that there was something not
right with Luca. We have experienced so much as a family over
these past years (many hardships but also many insights and
beautiful moments) . I want to give you a glimpse into life with
a child with autism through two short documents.
The first my wife Marina wrote
about a typical morning with Luca (or
"Mr. Schmoo" as we often call him) that she emailed to
our friends. It may be the
start of a longer work, or it may end here, we'll see.
The second is a brief
introduction to my son that I tucked into his backpack a few
weeks ago when we nervously sent him off to a new school. It can
take a long time for people to understand Luca's quirks and odd
ways - this was my attempt to help his teachers and therapists
with the learning curve (and to convince myself that everything
would be okay).
Luca is an extremely beautiful
and pure child. His laughter comes straight from his heart as do
all of his emotions. If you see him walking around PLG please
come right up to him and say "hi Luca!". He may not
respond, or even look your way, but he hears you and understands
that someone is reaching out to him and being a good neighbor.
"The
Morning" by Marina Viola
"Hello"
by Daniel Canale-Parola
(both docs are in Microsoft
Word format) |
