Category: Autism and developmental disabilities

Two summers ago, my husband and I caused Diego, my 26-year-old autistic son, to fear biking. It didn't take much, which shows that you can never know who or what might turn something you actually like...Read More →

Had someone asked me twenty years ago, “Are you glad your son's the way he is, I mean, autistic and all?” I’d have thought the person crazy. If she’d followed up with “Well, I’m glad mine is,” I’d have...Read More →

“People are programmed to desire, not to appreciate.” Matt Ridley, in The Rational Optimist My autistic son Diego sure is great at many things most people never learn how to do well, including saying ...Read More →

“For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth — that Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which...Read More →

Diego, my 26-year old son with autism and intellectual disability, loves the word “similar”. On one of our runs the other day, he began to recite this litany of similarities between movies: “Holes is ...Read More →

This summer, my family was supposed to go to South Africa on vacation, a huge deal given that we’ve never been anywhere in Africa and that my son, Diego, who has autism, has long been obsessed with...Read More →

We were midway through our run the other day when Diego brought up one of his favorite topics: What, pray, was the plan for the day? I ran through a proposed sequence: “First we run, then take a shower,...Read More →

Autism, as defined in the DSM-5, involves “Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts.” My 26-year old autistic son, Diego, decidedly has immense difficulty...Read More →

One of the main reasons I decided to register my sons, Diego and Andres, for religious education class was that I thought the church would be a place where Diego would be wholeheartedly welcomed and...Read More →

I recently showed my 26-year-old son Diego an abstract painting with lots of red on it and asked him what it showed. Without a moment’s hesitation, he declared it a pizza. A decorative wall plate with...Read More →