What does the future hold for my child?
This is the question that haunts many parents of children on the spectrum, regardless of their child's current age and abilities. Just the same as for typically developing children, there is no way of knowing. Seriously, there isn't. I don't care if your child is six, well spoken and acing their classes, or ten, non-speaking and in a special education classroom.
We don't know.
And that's both the scary, yet beautiful thing, isn't it? As soon as your child gets that autism diagnosis, people will tell you that their future is limited, that they will never be able to do [fill in the blank]. And that's certainly what my family experienced. When my sister got her diagnosis people were quick to put limits on her. They said she'd never read, never be in a mainstream school, never write an essay, never go to college, never live away from home. Yet she's actually done all of those things!
You can't say someone will never be able to do things just because they're autistic. What a person can do is different for everyone, and we cannot know what the future holds. That non-speaking child? Maybe they'll make a breakthrough in typing, like Carley Fleishmann did, and become an autism advocate!
We don't know.
And that's both the scary, yet beautiful thing, isn't it? As soon as your child gets that autism diagnosis, people will tell you that their future is limited, that they will never be able to do [fill in the blank]. And that's certainly what my family experienced. When my sister got her diagnosis people were quick to put limits on her. They said she'd never read, never be in a mainstream school, never write an essay, never go to college, never live away from home. Yet she's actually done all of those things!
You can't say someone will never be able to do things just because they're autistic. What a person can do is different for everyone, and we cannot know what the future holds. That non-speaking child? Maybe they'll make a breakthrough in typing, like Carley Fleishmann did, and become an autism advocate!
All autistic people's abilities are different, and they change over time. To prove that, I'm going to show you people who are famous for their abilities - and who are also autistic. Now, is every autistic kid going to grow up and do the things these famous people have? Of course not. Just like most neurotypical kids won't go on to become millionaires, famous actors, or Nobel Prize winners, it's the same with autistic kids.
Actors
Dan Aykroyd
Field: Comedian, singer, actor, writer
Details: He played Ray Stantz in Ghostbusters, a film which he helped write. Another successful autistic person in acting is Daryl Hannah, best known for acting in Splash, Blade Runner, Steel Magnolias, and Kill Bill.
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Musicians
Adam Young
Field: Musician/singer
Details: Created hit songs Fireflies, which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the more recent song Good Time. Other famous autistic musicians include
Craig Nicholls, frontman of the band, The Vines; and Susan Boyle, the singer from Britain's Got Talent. |
Nobel Prize Winners
Vernon SmithField: Economics
Details: A professor who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Vernon has a type of autism called Asperger's Syndrome and says being on the autism spectrum gave him the concentration he needed to win the prize. |
Models
Heather Kuzmich
Field: Modeling
Details: Kuzmich was on the reality TV show, America's Next Top Model, and came in fourth place. In a similar field, Alexis Wineman, Miss Montana, was a competitor for the Miss America beauty pageant.
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Athletes
Clay Marzo
Field: Surfing
Details: Clay Marzo is a professional surfer who won the National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) Nationals competition when he was just 15. He now helps run a camp for teaching autistic kids how to surf. |
Game Designers
Satoshi Tajiri
Field: Video Game Design
Details: Taijiri was the creator of the hugely popular video game Pokémon. Like many successful autistic people, he took his special interest (bug collecting) and used it to inspire him! |
Business people
Michael Burry
Field: Finance
Details: He's a hedge fund manager and former doctor who made over $100 million for himself and $700 million for his investors by successfully predicting the problems with housing that the United States had in 2008. He's been written in the newspaper The New York Times, and the book "The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine." He said that being an outsider actually helped him be able to make so much money, because it let him see things other people didn't. |
Advocates
Temple Grandin
Fields: Animal science and autism advocacy
Details: One of TIME's 2010 most influential people. Towards the goal of autism advocacy, which means she stands up for the rights of autistic people, she is both a successful speaker and author. Temple is so famous she even had a movie made about her, which won an Emmy! She is also an animal welfare advocate recognized as an award winning visionary by PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Here's a preview of the movie about her: |
Artists
Stephen WiltshireField: Drawing
Details: Stephen is an autistic savant, which means he is an autistic person who has a special skill. Stephen's special skill is that he can draw things from memory after only seeing them one time. He didn't learn how to speak fully until he was nine years old. Now that he's an adult, he is paid a lot of money to do what he loves best - drawing! His art is so good that for services to art he was actually appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire. Here's a video of him drawing. |
But these people are all speaking! My child could never be like them!
It's true, the people highlighted in this do tend to be speaking and higher on the spectrum. I hate to say it, but society does pose a barrier to people who are non-speaking (which is a reason to advocate for the rights of disabled people in society).
That said, even if your child is non-speaking now, they probably won't stay that way. In a large study of autistic children who had no speech at age 4, they found that 70% later developed the ability to speak in phrases and 48% even developed completely fluent speech.
What's more, autistic adults with any type of communication difference can live happy, successful lives. Just look at the artist Larry Bissonnette and autism advocate Carly Fleischmann. And you can read about how Alyssa Hillary, an Autistic Master's student, used AAC (alternative and augmentative communication, a la the iPad, writing, etc) to communicate while studying abroad in China.
And even a person who can't do any of those things can live a happy, wonderful life as you can see in Jay Turbull's life.
The point is, you can't point to any aspect of your child - their IQ score, disabilities, neurodiversity, speech, ANYTHING - and say that because they are ____ you know what their future is going to be like.
The future is wide open. And isn't that amazing?
That said, even if your child is non-speaking now, they probably won't stay that way. In a large study of autistic children who had no speech at age 4, they found that 70% later developed the ability to speak in phrases and 48% even developed completely fluent speech.
What's more, autistic adults with any type of communication difference can live happy, successful lives. Just look at the artist Larry Bissonnette and autism advocate Carly Fleischmann. And you can read about how Alyssa Hillary, an Autistic Master's student, used AAC (alternative and augmentative communication, a la the iPad, writing, etc) to communicate while studying abroad in China.
And even a person who can't do any of those things can live a happy, wonderful life as you can see in Jay Turbull's life.
The point is, you can't point to any aspect of your child - their IQ score, disabilities, neurodiversity, speech, ANYTHING - and say that because they are ____ you know what their future is going to be like.
The future is wide open. And isn't that amazing?
