DS is 9, autistic with ADHD, has demand avoidance and he is also bilingual. Sometimes I struggle to understand how he managed to pick up English (it took a long time even though he was born and raised in the UK, I now realise I was doing a lot of speech therapy myself).
I am often confused about what is happening in his head. Social stuff is obviously difficult to understand and I have my expectations adjusted there. But it seems like his understanding of the world was so much better when he was 5, there is some kind of regress happening. Yesterday we dropped off my friend at the airport and DS asked me why we were there at 4 when the friends flight was at 6. He has been to airports many-many times in his life, he even had a few book explaining how airports work, what the process is etc. He could definitely tell what happens at the airport when he was 5 or so! I am just so devastated every time I get these kinds of questions - I lose all hope.
Today, we watched a show about an eco village, where they had a communal laundry room. When he later came to the kitchen, he said that we did not have a washing machine. The washing machine has been in the same place for his whole life! It is a built in one, but still. I asked him to find what was the door for the washing machine and he looked under the sink?!
I am so confused... I do not understand what is happening. Is it a burnout with the loss of skills? Yesterday he was looking at a map of a fairly easy easter trail and he was persistently showing the wrong way. It scares me so much and I don't know how to help - I've been doing so much over the past 9 years with such little output (compared to the NT families), it led me to depression. And now it is getting even worse?!