My 6 yr. old son is non verbal but has great comprehension. He laughs at jokes or when people are being silly, he laughs when Sesame Street has Grover on and gives very insightful looks. He has excellent eye contact too and is very cuddly. Even though he works with a speech therapist and can use PECS when he feels like it. He has severe ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder) and will give you a look to let you know he's blowing you off on purpose LOL! He throws tantrums almost every day. He will kick and occasionally head butt. He's been on Seroquel and Melatonin since he was 3 yr. old and before that it was WAY worse. He used to only sleep well 3 nights a week or so and otherwise be up half the night. What is life like for any of you with moderate to severely Autistic kids. My son is a love bug when he's in a good mood but will implode when he's agitated, sick or has hurt feelings. He says "Mom" alot and I've heard him say other things under his breath (alphabet, "I don't want to", yes, no). It's a hard life because we constantly have to leave social events really early or eat our food at a restaurant real fast :o . His school calls me a lot because of his tantrums or because he throws his shoes off constantly. He gets out of his car seat a lot and gets very upset when anyone talks about him to teachers or doctors. He LOVES making messes by pouring things on the floor, knocking down things or breaking things. He has several stimming behaviors and a lot of people seem intimidated by them. They just don't get it.

On the other hand it is so heartwarming to see his whole face light up when I come home like it's Christmas day :) . He loves to give and receive hugs and kisses!! He has the cutest laugh I've ever heard and loves to dance to Sesame Street and The Wiggles. He's very compassionate and will sometimes give you a hug just because he thinks you need one ;) .

I just wonder if other people with non high functioning children find life as challenging? His teacher basically hinted to me that she doesn't believe he will become verbal and that I should be prepared for that. Well, thanks for listening to me ramble.

Sue

hi sue my son is six with severe autism he attends mainstream school with a fulltime carer in the last six months all our hard work with pecs has started to pay off he now lets us know verbally what his needs are and when he is happy or sad thats as far as he goes he dosnt care about anything else or any one i was told he would not speak but bloody hard work from his slt and me has proved them wrong i am teaching him to read now baby books but its astart as for going out for meals and family time in general forget it so yes it is hard but the rewards are massive caza

Hey Sue, you almost described my son to the tee. His name is Wil and he is 5. He has been attending a special needs school since age 3. He will be attending kindergarden this year and I must admit,I am terrified for him. He is also non-verbal with the exception of mama and a few other words when he chooses to. He is still in diapers, and still does not use a spoon or fork to feed himself. On the good side of this he knows basic colors when you ask him to point out the color red for example. He also knows the entire alphabet and the numbers 1-10. I am at such a loss sometimes not knowing if some of the extreme bad behavior is autism or just my not knowing just how to disipline him because of his condition. Like you, I stayaway from social events most of time. My husband plays music as a hobby and gets a lot of calls to play at different events. I so enjoyed going along with in the past,getting to meet a lot of people and just having fun. Those things are out of the question now. We don't even take a vacation anymore!

My son can handle some events depending on his mood. He doesn't do well at parties but does really well at carnivals where he can ride the kiddie rides :). Even then if we stay too long he gets overdone really easily. We take short vacations sometimes and he sometimes does well and sometimes has a meltdown. I can relate to missing being able to do some of the social stuff we used to do. My husband and I have no one who can take him overnight so we haven't had a private overnighter in 6 years.

On a positive note, he loves to hug and kiss and gives some of the BEST hugs I've ever had ;). He has such a cute laugh and gets so excited when I put on Sesame Street or the Wiggles! One of his main stims is clapping and he will clap in different ways depending on if he's happy, mad, excited or offended. His happy clap is very cute! David will occasionally point to a letter, color, PEC if he feels like it but ONLY if he feels like it LOL.