Can you tell which one of these kids has autism?

One of these beautiful boys has autism. The other does not.
If you didn't already know our story, could you tell which one?
I doubt that you could.

On the left is our beautiful 5 year old Batsman. He has autism.
On the right is our gorgeous, 2.6 year old Bowler. He does not have autism.

Today is World Autism Awareness Day. All over the world, there are families and professionals and individuals with autism raising awareness about what autism means for them. The aim? A world where everyone knows about autism, where children and adults with autism are treated with respect and care and sensitivity and the resources so very necessary to support those affected are readily available. For more information about the campaign, go here.

Getting back to the Batsman, one of the things that is often said to me if I tell someone that he has autism is "But he doesn't look autistic". And that's just the thing isn't it? Autism "looks" different for every single child who is affected by it. And in a way, that can make increasing awareness in the broader community very tricky. There isn't one neat box we can pile everyone into and write 4 or 5 characteristics on a label and say "this is autism". That just wouldn't be accurate. But what we can do, as individuals with autism, as parents, as carers, as practitioners in the autism field, is to tell our stories and keep telling them. I really think that the collective voices around autism are getting louder and stronger and that can only be a great thing.

I wrote a post called "our autism" this time a year ago. It seems like the right time to speak of what "our autism" is now, twelve months on. Our autism sees:

• a little boy much travelled but still with a long road ahead
• an affectionate, kind soul who struggles enormously with anxiety and change and control. Meltdowns still happen, just not as frequently.
• a gentle creature with sensory sensitivities that affect how he perceives and experiences his world
• a child who has to work doubly hard to receive what is being said and to make himself be understood
• a boy who is beginning to forge friendships at kinder but finds it so very hard to read the social cues and nuances of play
• my precious eldest who picks up the tiniest "edge" in another's voice but is unable to decipher that the "edge" is not directed at him
• a brave, determined kid who will head off to school next year.

He is utterly amazing and I feel so fortunate to be able to share a little of him here.
Love you buddy. Really, truly, to the moon and back. Times infinity.