Hi everyone,
just some sharing: my cousin is an autistic boy and he is 11yrs old now. He was then at Montessori pre school when the educator suspected that he might be autistic, it was devastating and unacceptable for my aunt. They first observed that he could not be settled down and mingle with other children, he would just run off to a corner and play by himself. He would cry and throw tantrums if we force him to fit in. At around kindergarten age, he still could not speak and form sentences and imitates other people talking too.He is extremely loyal to something which he loves. It is very hard to break that cycle. He can eat the same type of food for the whole day and every day; for him he loves roasted chicken rice. He is now more adapted to other types of food. He is 11yrs old now, and he is capable of coming back to home after the school bus drops him and he is able to press the lift button to the correct storey without fail. He is able to wash his own plate after meals, wears his own shirts and shoes. He loves bear hugs and would squeeze you real tight as he is very strong. We find that he has a good memory for roads. When he was about 7yrs old, he ran away from home a few times. He went to Lot One by himself, and it was 30mins walk from his home. At my old place in woodlands, he was found at causeway point, also about 30mns walk from my place. It was the police we called us.He also has a soft spot for young children and would try to comfort them and say" dont cry, no, dont cry...shhh". It was really a lovely scene.
Watching him grow and being capable of doing things which we thought might be beyond him is indeed a fulfilling part that he plays in our lives. Sometimes we were too overprotective and hence we did not allow him to do certain things by himself, so we always thought he could not do it. But as we give him more room to become independent and do things by himself gradually, we could see he has improved a lot and we realized he has plenty of potential.