I have a great but challenging life. I am a single mother with two boys on the autism spectrum. My oldest, has full blown autism, mental retardation and also suffers from epilepsy. My youngest is higher functioning but he had speech delay until five years of age and it has greatly improved through early intensive behavioural intervention. He is still behind his typical peers and still has many outbursts. Just the every day mundane things that we all take for granted is a major challenge for us. Several months ago, when we went to the grocery store, my youngest got excited when he saw watermelon on display and screamed "Watermelons"! I didn't think it was any big deal, it was a major improvement since my oldest son enjoys smashing eggs on the floor (we always avoid that aisle). Well, an old man jumped and screamed "Those children should be at home and not taken into public!" I can't even count the number of times people have reprimanded me for not discipling my children.
Michael Savage is another one of them. He actually stated that autistic kids are not sick... just BRATS!.
"I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot.
Hey Michael Savage! You are the idiot! You should spend some time at a special needs class and see autistic children in person before spouting your mouth off.
It is very difficult to educate people on autism since these children and adults do not look any different than typical people. For all of you that have not met a person with autism, please think twice before yelling something awful to them or their caretaker. I even had a man call my child a whiner last week when we came out of the store.