It is easy nowadays to Google Autism and find out the symptoms and the impacts on the individuals life.
However I am going to talk about what my son endures and the effects of Autism on his life.
At the time of writing this blog update J is going through a phase ( we hope) of not sleeping in his bed. He sleeps on the landing. No mattress or pillow. Just his cover. This has been happening for 5 months now. We have tried to get him back in to his bed with a variety of methods and we have looked at what may be causing him to not want to sleep in his bed, but I think it boils down to him preferring the hardness of the floor. Temple Grandin, a great Autistic lady who has written about her Autism, has said she sleeps in a cow press as she needs the sensation of pressure on her body to enable her to sleep.
J has verbal communication to the point of being able to request basic items of food - "toast, milk, cola, water, bissie (biscuit) but he doesn't initiate conversations and cannot hold any type of conversation. He is echolalic ( the start of language learning that occurs in toddlers and involves the child repeating, perhaps not sound perfect ( see 'bissie' for biscuit) words the parent/carer says. He cannot answer questions as he has no interest in you and therefore if you were to direct a question, no matter how basic, such as " is J okay?" he will reply, when pushed several times, with "okay, okay". The reply is not an answer rather his echolalia taking hold. Without the echolalia he would be silent. If you do not direct the question to him he will ignore.
To get J to know you are talking to him you have to state his name first. Without that he blends the sound of your voice in to the background.
J has major food issues and has a small limited selection of food he will eat. Toast, a few types of biscuits/crisps/chocolate, chips, pureed fruit pots ( the ones made for weaning babies with no lumps in)custard which is a certain brand, bread sticks, raisins, Twiglets,Petit Filous yoghurts, milk, water and diet cola. He will not eat normal meals. He gags and chokes if you try to make him eat other foods and now as he is such a strong child I cannot blend down normal meals and make him eat from a spoon I am proffering. Back when he was small it still took an hour or so to get him to eat the pureed meal ( stews and casseroles were the biggest ones as I could add tonnes of veg to the meat) and it entailed me following him round, making sure he didn't spit the food out.
J has no awareness of other peoples feelings. He laughs when he sees myself crying or his middle brother upset. He goes into hysterical laughter at what appears to us as absolutely nothing whatsoever. He thinks that what he's feeling or thinking is what everyone is thinking and feeling.
J has no danger awareness and therefore needs supervision when out and about as he is liable to walk into oncoming vehicles. Within the home he is a danger to himself and I always make sure plugs are switched off to avoid him turning appliances on. The kitchen is locked to avoid injury from him playing with knives or turning a kettle on for example.
