Can someone with autism lead a 'normal' life?

[meg1209]

Hi,

My son is nearly 2 and being assessed for autism, he babbles but doesn't talk and stims. He also completely ignores everyone. Although he has no restrictive behaviours etc. (just yet, I'm not sure if this changes).

Over the last few days I've just been getting so upset as the future is so unknown. I know that this is the case for every single person, autism or not. But I just want to know, if he does get diagnosed, what is the likelihood he will lead a relatively 'normal' life.

When I say 'normal' I mean - go to mainstream school, have consistent friends/ relationships with others, be able to communicate and do things independently?

I just want him to have everything in life and have his own independence and experiences. Please tell me that this is possible for him, I love him so much ❤️

I’m not sure what you consider normal but it is possible for someone with autism to go to mainstream school, university, get a job, have a family etc..etc…, many do.

Both my dc have autism, one is at university, the other is more severely autistic and needs 24 hour supervision, she attends a SEN base at a mainstream college. I’m going through diagnosis myself and have led a fairly normal life though I’m far from normal (what ever normal is).

Each person with autism is different so it’s impossible to say what kind of life your dc will lead, the same as it’s impossible to say what kind of life any 2 year old will have in the future.

We can spend our time worrying about what the future may hold for our dc but it won’t change anything. I always tried to focus on making sure my dc had happy lives, this is easier when they are younger. My advice would be to make sure they experience as many things as possible whilst they are young, don’t stop them from doing things because your worried about how they will cope, give them opportunities to try new things, if it doesn’t go to plan then that ok. It’s a learning process for them and you, you learn what triggers a meltdown, what they can and can’t cope with and you learn how to deal with behaviours caused by sensory overload.

No, that’s complete bullshit. Those figures refer to people with a diagnosis, not all autistic people.
Given that I know people who have been told in their assessment for autism that the fact they have a job is evidence they are not autistic, it doesn’t take a degree in statistics to see how this would skew the results.

That’s such a lovely update, your ds sounds wonderful, as do you!

DD is ASD. She has a happy life, different of how we might have imagined it but she is happy.
As your child grows, you will get to know what they are comfortable with and how to find ways to cope around things they find more challenging.
It's a learning curve, you won't get everything right but nobody does. you will have to rethink and reconfigure and that can sometimes be hard. But you will find happiness and joy, it's not all doom and gloom.
Be kind to yourself, finding out that your child has additional needs, the fear of the unknown are very frightening at first.

No, you are wrong about that. If you look at the ONS survey methodology, definitions are self-reported.

NB. The National Autistic Society cites the survey, including even worse headline figures.
https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/news/new-data-on-the-autism-employment-gap

Targeted speech, language and communication therapy can make all the difference and he could still make lots and lots of progress in future. There's no fixed "window", it's different for every child.