[OnyxCougar]

Originally posted by Undertoad
Sorry to be nosy, but what's the long term expectation for your middle one? What did people think of kids like that before they knew what autism is?

Well, that depends largely on Bryan. He's smart enough to do anything he wants, but he's socially delayed. I have been told to prepare myself to have him live at home, or at least closeby for the rest of his life, because he simply doesn't understand how things work together. It's like it's 5 years old in the social interactivity department and 13 in the academic department. He'll turn 11 in Feb.

I don't know what they did for autistic kids before autism was diagnosable, other than put them in asylums. I know it took me about 4 years to get him diagnosed with it to get the care he needed, tho. The doctors refused with every visit to "label" him. I handed them the DSM IIIR (and later IV) and showed them all the symptoms of mild autism, and by all rights, the child is autistic, yet they refused.