A couple of pictures below show a glimpse of my son's autism suffering and several others show the joy he has experienced and brings into the lives of his parents. parents who provide care and love.
The swelling from a hand bite Conor inflicted on himself in high school when the phone in an office near where Conor was located kept ringing because no one was there to answer it. When he was in grade school, in a NB ""Inclusive"" classrom he used to come home nearly every day with bite marks on his hands. When he was moved to an empty room where he studied with the assitance of an autism trained aide the biting stopped. Night and day.
In this picture above Conor was enjoying a Saturday morning swing on his old school grounds, beautiful, mild, quiet day. Suddenly he began smashing his head in obvious pain. I had worked on a summer job with a fellow who suffered from seizures and displayed such pain on occasion and sought medical attention for the possibility Conor was suffering from seizures which he was. Several grand mal/tonic clonic seizures later Conor was confirmed with epilepsy and began seizure medication. As I now know Conor's epilepsy/seizures are common for persons with autism and ID.
Despite the challenges faced Conor has been happy and has brought great joy to those who know him. In the pictures below Conor's love and joy is clear and attributable to him. His parents, if I may say, know a little bit about what it takes to assist him in having a happy life, and unlike researchers we will not cut and run - we will stay the course. We know our children better than researchers who do not study them but exclude them.
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