Knowing When to Trust Your Autistic Child
With Jonathan getting older he wanted to be given more freedom. When was young he was prone to running. The problem with Jonathan running was what he would run in front of. He would think nothing of running onto a busy street, in front of a child on a swing or walking off a cliff. He had no sense of danger and had to be watched the all times. I remember one time when Jonathan ran out the front door. He ran towards the highway full tilt with no regard to the danger he was putting himself into. I never ran so fast in my life. Just as his foot made it past the curb I grabbed the back of his shirt and snatched him backwards and out of the path of a transport truck. I thought for sure I’d die of a heart attack right there.
With that in mind it was difficult to consider allowing Jonathan greater freedom so he could explore his independence. But once again I had to have the courage to listen and so did the teachers. Having Jonathan at school meant a great deal of responsibility lay on them to keep him safe and other children around him safe. The very idea of allowing him to walk by himself was terrifying. But we decided to give it a try and found great success. Jonathan found that he greatly enjoyed doing arrands for the teachers at school. It gave him a sense of pride and taught us once again that sometimes we needed to listen and change our way of thinking so that we could learn something new.
There were times when Jonathan was the teacher. We also started letting Jonathan get on and off the bus on his own at home and its school. I feel that it was important to teach Jonathan independence now. I want him to know how to do things even when there was no one there to help. Because someday Jonathan will become an adult and there may be a time when I will not be able to be there. Teaching him how to take care of himself now will give him the tools he needs to take care of himself when he is an adult.
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