How can you support your son who has autism?

Answer 1

Learn about autism - not just from doctors or studies but from autistic people themselves, autistic adults have already been through what your son is going to go through so can help. There are many resources by autistic people, for example if you are on Facebook Karla's ASD Page is a great recourse for parents of autistic children, and Karla herself is autistic so can give great insight into autism.

Even if your son is severely effected and the adults you talk to are not, remember that many autistic adults were severely effected as children, also that no matter what we all have symptoms in common. Autistic adults have meltdowns like autistic children, where as a severely autistic person may not be able to explain what a meltdown is, how it feels, or what to do to help them...a person not so severely effected can tell you these things, and likely able to explain better thanks to the benefit of a lifetime of experience.

Support your son - understand that issues like meltdowns are not behavioural, a meltdown for an autistic person is as unpleasant and uncontrollable as a seizure for an epileptic. Don't scold autistic behaviour or try to train it out of him, accept his autism and work with it to help him live as full a life as possible, trying to force him to be something he is not (neurotypical) doesn't help him and may make his problems worse.

Also, don't sell him short - even if severely effected now he may improve in time, the world is full of stories where a child could have been deemed 'severely autistic' only to grow-up to outperform their neurotypical peers and live independently, functioning as well as any neurotypical person. If your child doesn't improve that isn't the end of the world, you will still love them and see how wonderful they are.