Lastly, I will run through the routine of my Autistic little brother's day. My mother wakes him up at 7 am. He gets out of bed after exactly 10 minutes. He then gets dressed at 7:10. From 7:10 to 7:20, he complains about going to school. At 7:20 he eats his breakfast consisting of a soft pretzel and milk chocolate instant breakfast. My father checks the weather for him online at 7:30. Then, he can recite the 10 day forecast from memory. The bus that picks him up must be here at 7:35. When at school, he won't eat the lunch he is given, due to extreme limitations on what he will eat. Whenever there is a fire drill at school he melts down, and has trouble returning to the normal routine. He must know exactly when classes such as Art and Gym change days. He knows exactly when his Aide comes, and watches the clock to ensure that she arrives on time. Instead of doing independent work, he waits for an adult to assist him. He arrives home at 4:25.
Because he is so worn out from school, he is allowed to play video or computer games until dinner is ready. He is obsessed with video games, and these are also the only thing he talks about. His dinner is exactly the same as his breakfast. He eats at 6:00 and starts on his homework at 6:30. He usually only spends 30 minutes on homework, and has to have adult help. His bath is at 7:00. While taking a bath, my mother brushes his teeth. His bath finishes at 7:15. He then plays video games until 9:00. He can't stop before or after 9:00 exactly. In order to get into bed he has to have a glass of ice water brought up to him. He goes through a routine of turning off all his electronics. He has to turn on the closet light and open the door slightly. He then picks out a book to read. Then he is ready to go to bed. It takes from 1-2 hours for him to fall asleep. Before he goes to sleep, he must be told what is going to happen the next day so there are no surprises.
Summer vacation and weekends are hard for him because there isn't any structure to them. Trips are especially hard because he doesn't know what is going to happen next. He doesn't eat, sleep, and he needs to know exactly what it is we are going to be doing and when we are going to do it. His major symptoms are food sensitivity, the rigidness of his schedule, his difficulty with social interaction and his inability to comprehend abstract concepts. The ways he isn't Autistic are he's extremely affectionate, is friendly, he can maintain eye contact, he's more flexible than most Autistic people and he is aware of the other people around him. He started to develop symptoms when he was about 15 months old. He didn't develop language skills until he was 4 years old. He was diagnosed when he was 3. However, he's extremely talented at any kind of math.
Autism is still running rampant today, but there is hope. With what most people believe to be the major factor in the disorder, Mercury, being removed from most vaccines, rates at which Autism is appearing seems to be are dropping. Though it still exists in vaccines such as the Flu Vaccine, more research is being done to make a defining connection between Autism and Mercury. While many families have been devastated by the effects of Autism, they are banding together in the forms of online support groups conventions, in order to help each other with the terrible disorder. Though no cure or treatment has been found, a lot of research is being conducted to find one.
