Autism and Learning

I have a 9 year old Autistic son..he was diagnosed with severe autism at the early age of 2...with his results being pretty much zero across the board..his age level at that time was approximately 2 months...he was lower in some areas...i was given encouragement for his future, just an apology and a tip to get him all the help i can..as well as a opinion from them...to not expect much from him...he might not ever talk, express love to his parents and to prepare myself...he was so in his own mind/world he didnt recognize other children or even animals that were around him....Well boy did Justin Prove them wrong in EVERY area...i got Justin all the help that was available to me...i not only had therapists at my house 25 hours a week..i took him to groups...i pushed for my other son who was only 14 months older than him to participate in any activity he could with his brother...and my reward ....a happy, loving...9 year old autistic boy who shows emotion, gives hugs, plays with animals, plays with his brothers in many areas of play...not only does Justin talk some, but he reads and prints his name as well as other words...i believe he understands and reads spanish as well as French...self taught...Justin is extremely brilliant..just learns differently...Autism doesnt mean a learning dissability just a different way of learning...it is up to his parents, caregivers teachers to find out what that learning style is and move forward from there....i believe one of the biggest mistakes a parent can make when their child is diagnosed with Autism is to ...treat that child as he cannot learn...and expect less from that child...i have always talked to my autistic son the way i talk to my other boys...yes i had to tweek it sometimes but..most times...i just treated him like he didnt have Autism...in some areas i had to make exceptions..but i believe because i expected him to talk, he did..i expected him to play with his toys appropriately he did..of coarse it took some teaching and patience and quite a bit of repetition...but the end result..he talked, and learned to play with toys the way they were meant to be played with...he learned that there is more to a park than the fence he wanted to walk around umpteen hundred times over and over again...lol....he learned eventually that there was fun in sliding down a slide...climbing ladders...and his most favorite of all swinging...the more we let our Autistic child do the same things over and over...never showing or trying to show him or her other things...the more they may go to that place they go..( my family called it Justins world) we can through no fault of our own but because we want them to be happy or content...we can hinder what their own personal progress would be otherwise...if we take the chance and time to show them...eventually they will go and explore new things on their own...and be proud of themselves....Justin Loves to learn and i think it is because he can show us through his newest achievment what he may not be able to communicate with words...that he wants to learn..that he can learn...and just be patient..it just takes time...and it will make life a lot easier for all...Thank You for reading..if you have any questions or just want to share feel free to contact me through this site...my email whatever...im happy to hear from you.....