Our neighbours, 5 floors down, are renovating their unit. In response to all the noise, poor Nathan was banging his ears. All I could do was explain that they were fixing and drilling down stairs and hope that he could find a way to cope with the noise.
We take for granted our ability to block out unnecessary noise and ability to focus on the person speaking in the room.

Kids with autism are bombarded by sounds (or whichever of the 5 senses they are overstimulated by), and they have a great way of coping by zoning out and focusing on their repetitive movement. But this time, the noise of drilling was just too much for Nathan to cope. Hopefully all the drilling and pounding will be done soon.

When you see a child in with autism in the mall, rocking, flapping, spinning, chanting, or something “autistic”, bless the family with a smile of approval (instead of giving a you’re-strange-look) and just know that the child is just doing his/her very best trying to block out the overpowering noise, or lights, or smells, and just trying to cope with something very very difficult for him/her at the moment.

…just another day in the life of autism…

God made each of us special. No matter what trials in life, He always gives us a way to cope.