Tuesday night.A quiet weekday night out on the town. My husband and I decided to go to dinner with my FIL and my son. It had been a tough day thanks to the incident I described in my last post.
We headed to the local J. Alexander's restaurant. It is a small restaurant that holds a maximum occupancy of about 200. It was busy, but not full to capacity last night.
While having dinner I noticed a mom struggling with her son on her way to the bathroom. He was about 10 years old or so.The boy was stimming, arms flapping and throat sounds and resisting her redirection. AUTISM.
About 20 minutes later the large party sitting next to us got up to leave. Another boy around the same age jumps from his chair to the floor, where he giggled uncontrollably, arms retracted and in his own world. His shirt read "The Victory School" (a local autism school). AUTISM.
I glanced at my son, 5, who was in his own world watching Clifford on DVD while we dined. AUTISM. He glanced back up at me, sweetly smiled and went back to his DVD.
1 in 150 kids have autism and about 1 in 94 boys (mol) are part of that group. I saw 3 in a time span of about 40 minutes in one place alone. What are those odds?
But no, there is no autism epidemic right?
1 comment:
Isn't it the truth! I have had so many occasions where we had similar experiences. In my immediate neighborhood I know 5 kids on the spectrum, including mine. I am sure there are more.
You know, I think back to Kindercare. In our kids' class--the two classes of 2 yr. olds together-- I think there were about 26 kids. I know that in addition to our 2 boys, 3 others (1 girl, 2 more boys) were ultimately dx'd. That is 5 in 26 just out of that little group.
It really makes you wonder...
Katherine
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