My Son Doesn’t Know He is Autistic

and that’s ok..

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I’d always imagined that as my son got older, we would have ‘the talk’, that I would sit him down and explain to him why he is different to other kids. Why he attends a different sort of school, why he struggles so much in some things.

Over the years, I have dropped the word ‘autistic’ in to general conversation with him, but every time he sweeps past it and continues on with his topic of choice at the time.

My son is very focused on his topic of choice, in that moment, his train of thought cannot be broken or changed until he has completed his round of thinking on it.

Let me give you an example, at the moment he wants some weights to train with (He’s 14), he wants bigger muscles on his arms. He spends a lot of time training and ‘doing his exercises’, he takes pride in his appearance. Not unlike most teenagers of his age. However, right now he is focused on his arms not being right. Therefore, this has been the only thing he has spoken about for the last week. Today is the day when I can finally afford to order the weights he wants. He is very excited and can’t wait.

My point is, that he doesn’t see himself as different, he doesn’t even compare himself to others, that is something I do — I have compared myself to others all my life and frankly, that is how I feel, I…