Autism Eyes

This week has given me a few more facts about how my son sees the world. It has been mind-opening for me to hear his views on things, and realize that he truly sees the world through his autism-eyed glasses.

We were watching tv, while it was still light outside. On the screen, a dark night was being portrayed. Kaeden asked me: Mama, where do they live that it is so dark outside when it's still daytime here? When I tried explaining that the show was taped, he stayed focused on the fact that the people were speaking Dutch, which means they live in Holland or Belgium, so it had to be light there too. He just wasn't comprehending that a movie is a movie, and doesn't mean that it is live.

Yesterday we went to a museum. It was a nature museum and there were animals which had been stuffed. Kaeden was really interested in the videos they were showing of all the different animals in their natural habitats. As we passed a display of the storks, Kaeden said: Look, there are the storks. I think they are making babies right now.

Now, this may be just a little something that could be misunderstood...but it wasn't. Kaeden truly believed the storks were making babies, human babies.

So, sometimes I have to step back and wonder if he really lives life always inside his autistic mind, or if sometimes he just has an autistic moment and misunderstands concepts. This is very typical of autism, translating things literally. And hearing his viewpoint makes me remember how hard it must be to live with autism. And how hard it is to be a parent of a child that sees the world differently...