Daniel

[Venus]

As I understand it, autistic children are often highly intelligent. The autistic child's difficulty lies in communicating with the outside world, which causes intense frustration which in turn leads to behavioral problems.
If the communication problems can be overcome then there is a huge improvement in the child's quality of life. Venus, is this the kind of explanation you are been given?

My son is highly intelligent. At 4½ he has amazing abilities with numbers, ie. can already count way over 1000 & can do maths in his head. He can look at a digital clock & say "it's 17 minutes to 8:00". He also has a gift in remembering dates. He often says to me, for example, that day 31 December 2006 was a sad day because xyz happened or he wants to go back to the place we went to on day number 16. He told me the other day that he'll be big in 2017 because he'll be 15. He's also started reading without any formal teaching. However, we need to be very direct in our meanings when talking to him because he doesn't "get" things like figurative speech, teasing or sarcasm. He's a very interesting person & every day with him is an education because it's like living with a mini Einstein. :haha: He has an amazing mind.

The behavioral problems are usually down to sensory overload because people with autism often see/hear/smell/taste/feel things more intensely than neurotypical people. This is why D has a big problem with food & things like walking barefoot on grass.

Thank you all for your support & kindness. It does help us. mitten: