An Ahhhha Moment! "Heaven"

One of the most difficult things with Autism is that you know that the kids are not "retarded " BUT often times there is great thought about the individuals "conceptual " thinking skills-- {What do they know by rote or example and what do they truly understand!} {example: the difference between the words two and both; 2 separate words yet they can refer to the same thing}

Just 2 days ago Dakota and I were watching the Family Feud. Steve Harvey reads the question " Name one of things you might see when you die" and before either of the people could push their buzzers and reply, Dakota shouted out "Heaven"! Setting aside anyones beliefs;The amazing part of this was that he shouted it out with such conviction. He understood the question and he answered the question not by rote. Yes one could argue this is a "pat" answer I will however go to my grave believing otherwise---He heard the question and he knew the answer---

It may seem trivial to most especially ones who do not deal with Autism . I cannot tell you how many times over and over your child gets shut down, questioned and assessed as mentally retarded to speech and language delayed {and of course everything in between} You discuss with these "professionals" how you see progress, how you see growth, how you know your child is doing more than they want to give him credit for, yet their "opinion"  prevails . They think you are reading more into it than is really there or you are over reacting to something that seem minute to them. What I say is "YOU WILL NOT DAMPEN MY SPIRITS -- YOU WILL NEVER CONVINCE ME I AM WRONG ABOUT THIS!" When you live in the world of Autism 24/7 365 I admit you have moments of murkiness --you will believe certain things will happen when they wont or cant-- the flip side is, that being so completely immersed that you know when something is real; you know when you are seeing something you have never seen before and you know it is genuine.

This may seem a bit trivial as an excerpt for this journal BUT Not to me and not FOR Dakota-- again when you have typical kids this would never be something that any parent would even take notice of much less write about. For me its "An AHHHHA Moment"