We See You

“This is Eric. We have him on staged intervention at nursery, with an enhanced transition for going to school. Input from homestart, action for children, and autism outreach. He’s light sensitive, sound sensitive. Extremely protective of personal space. Can have a meltdown over anything that isn’t going exactly how he wants and expects, and struggles greatly with children his own age. He is desperate to join in playing with other children but often plays alone because he finds other children unpredictable, and he gets angry if they spoil his games.

Why am I telling you this. Because Eric is autistic. He is still awaiting his diagnosis, but we know he is. And if this was all anyone knew of him, then they would assume we had a badly behaved, poorly disciplined, uncooperative child. We don’t.

Eric has more words than he can express, is very intelligent, and is extremely charming. To charming for his own good a lot of the time. And if you show the slightest interest in what he likes, he will talk your ear off. He is very loving and likes to do things to make people happy. He is far wiser than his years and gets anxious over things most grown-ups wouldn’t even dream of. He likes bringing home pictures from nursery but doesn’t like drawing. And he has the biggest imagination of any child you could hope to meet.

Eric is a child who happens to be autistic. He is individual. He is the most amazing wee boy.

For all the wonderful neurodiverse children out there. We see you.“