All parents want the best for their kids. When it comes to special needs kids that can be a very different and very difficult pill to swallow. In my life I have 2 specials needs autistic kids. For this topic I want to discuss Gavin as Emmett John is to young and there isn’t enough known about his condition to make any guesses.

We want Gavin to have the best possible life (this is why we have to push so hard). Every parent wants to go to sports events and graduations. They want grandkids and to see their child find happiness. I our case with Gavin we will most likely never see any of those things with him. However, we do want him to live up to his potential. He should still be the best he can be, despite the autism. We don’t want him to be someone or something he’s not.

This is where reality likes to slap us square in the face. How do we know what his potential is. How do we know if we are pushing to hard or not hard enough. Gavin is a very capable little boy at times. Gavin deals with regression quite frequently. In fact we are in one of those phases currently. Typically he bounces back but sometimes he needs to re-learn some things he has “forgotten” how to do.

Gavin is extremely intelligent but also extremely socially challenged. His behavioural problems get in the way of most activities. We push pretty hard on certain things because we don’t want him going to jail over some of these things when he gets older.

Back to my main question. How do we know what his potential is? Should we just recognise his limitations and never challenge his to overcome them? Things would be a lot quieter around here if we did. I can’t tell you how many times Gavin says he can’t do it but then we push him to at least try he finds he can do it.
We want to embrace him for who he is not who we want him to be, if that makes any sense.

LT