[dog breath]

One of the most important things for the parent of a high functioning autistic child to remember is to take whatever interests them and run with it. My son has become obsessed with many different things growing up and has learned from each thing. From example, one of his first was trains, we learned, over, under, fast, slow, up and down. Later that developed into a understanding of commerce and transportation. A interest in the names of presidents ended up teaching him about government and American history. A fixation with lighting is now leading him into a career in electronics as he grows up. There is nothing really unique to autistic children about this, all children benefit from letting their minds explore what interests them. The language problems can even be helped by showing them the way things are all connected.

[Earthdweller]

The brilliance dedicated to one subject is definitely a plus. I find the social difficulties sometimes haunt this group. I come from a long line of University profs that sadly were some of the loneliest people on the planet.

Start early with the social skills.

[Stellar Dendrite]

Have you ever looked into supplementing your son with L-Carnosine? If not, please see my post #102 for more information....

[Yaelle]

Here were my son's fixations, in order: What floor people lived on (ages 1-2, he lived on the 6th floor); cars (a parking lot was as good as Disneyland to him and he could name every car in there, it stopped abruptly on his 3rd birthday when everyone we knew gifted him something to do with cars); nothing until about age 6 when he stepped into the world of Pokemon and didn't come out for 4-5 years. At that point it was all computers, gaming, and anime, which have continued to this day (he's 13) and might indeed lead to a career.