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When my dd’s supervisor showed me this letter from one of her otherclients, I immediately wanted to share it with all of you. I wasamazed at how articulate this boy is and his depth of thought on thetopic.

He is 9 years old, nonverbal, and diagnosed with severe autism. Hejust began using a Facilitated Communication device recently. Thequestion my dd’s supervisor posed was “What does autism mean to you.”Here is his reply. I have typed his words verbatim. I have notaltered his sentence structure or thoughts at all.

“What do I think autism means. To me it means not to be able to fullyconnect with myself. I can not control some of the things I say or do.I feel at times out of control. Other times I feel scared of whatothers may think. I have all my life had to prove to people that I amreally intelligent and kind. Huge amount of people have finallybelieved in me. The toughest part of being autistic is the sillythoughts that go through your head. People don’t understand what I amthinking of. It’s frustrating. Autism is not easy to define to somebodywho isn’t but, the easiest way to put it into words would be probablydisconnection from yourself and others. People are now understandingthat it more prevalent. There needs to be more research on infantswhile in the tummy. I know there is some clues there. As to why thereis autism. I’m just happy to be alive and healthy. I’m just lucky tohave my family and friends. Having them helps me cope with life. I’mvery lucky.”

When my dd’s supervisor asked him if she could share this letter withothers so that they could understand what it’s like to have autism, hetyped the following response:

“Yes. Yes please. I want others to know. I think it’s important forpeople to know. I’m really proud of my paper. I worked really hard onit. Thank you.”

I was blown away by the complexity of mind that this boy displayed. Itaught typical 9-10 year olds in 4th grade for 5 years and this levelof thought is rare indeed.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.