Often I read blogs and writings by autistic adults . I like to have the perspective of autistics because I am not autistic and my son is. Mostly its thought provoking and enlightening to me. But quite often I come across opinions of adult autistics that say anyone persuing a"cure" or "recovery" is doing their child a disservice because you are not loveing the child for who they are and trying to change who the child really "is". I have heard that biomedical intereventions are "cruel".
Well here is my perspective and probably only the parents of autistics kids will appriciate this. I do follow the biomedical approach. First off I want to get my son's body as healthy as possible. If he is not feeling well then how can he function at his best, how can anyone? After removng dairy from his diet he became less aggressive. He stopped biting his sister and pulling her hair. If I add vitamens and minerals to his diet and remove foods that make him crazy how am I being cruel to my son? Not to mention the fact that he has been sick much less since starting the biomed approach. If I get him healthy, rid his body of yeast overgrowth, get all the alluminum out of him and he's still autistic, then fine at least he is a healthy autistic boy.
Then there is therapy. Some argue that ABA is cruel and mean. Well the ABA of today is a far cry from the ABA of 20 years ago when these adults were children. Its more friendly and less rigid. Lets face it its a cruel world out there. We could all hold hands and sing and wish everyone was nice and accepted everyone else for who they are, but that is just not reality. The reality is that I will not be around forever and my chidren have to be able to take care of themselves. I don't want Gage to be reliant on the state and caregivers and I don't want Makinna to have to take care of him, she has her own life to lead.
So I guess I am in persuit of a "cure" or "recovery" for my son. But its all relative. To me this means "functioning independantly and happy" To some it means to wipe out every trace of autism from thier child. Well I don't necesarily feel that way. I love Gage's little quirks. I just want him to be the best he can be. I want him to learn, be healthy and happy. When he is not able to communicate, when he feels bad physically, and he wants to socialize with other kids but doesn't know how and basically gets aggressive as his social overture, well I don't think he is happy. He has to function in an NT world. As his parent I will push him to do his best to make his way in the world we live in, and I will do the same for my daughter. I just have to go about it in a different way with Gage.
