The Autistic Toddler Pt2

I’m writing an update about my son who has Autism because, I recently read something that made me feel really bad. My son will be turning 2 years old next week and every since he was born, I have been receiving newsletters from babycenter.com about his development. You know, it’s a newsletter they send via email every month that tells you “Your child is now X months old” and it goes on to tell you what your baby should be doing by that point, milestone wise. I recently received a newsletter that said “Your toddler is now 23 months old” and inside the first sentence was “Your child should now be speaking at least 50 words”. I can tell you that it was a true wake up call and it made me feel really bad. I love my son more than anything in the world and I try to not define him by being Autistic but, it really hit home because, my son speaks 7 words and the rest is babble that cannot be understood. He’s learned 1 new word in 4 months.

I have been attacked by people stating that I’m a horrible parent and that I’m obviously not spending enough time with my son and I’m not reading to him or trying to teach him new words. Are you kidding me? I spend countless hours with him using flashcards, educational shows and even educational puzzles that show the picture and the word, letter and number associated with it. For some reason, it’s not registering and I’m doing the best I can so, I feel really bad when people call me out and say I’m neglecting him. I haven’t found very many resources that could help him or me. I don’t live in a populated city, we have less than 2,000 people here and there are no resources in this area. I do take him to an autism center an hour away and even they come to the house sometimes and work with him but, he still isn’t improving and they said he could stay stuck like this forever.

Does anyone else have autistic kids and what did you do? I would like to hear your stories if you could please comment, I need resources!