A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

As a single mother the hardest reality I had ever had to face was that I would never be able to make my autistic son's only wish a reality. All he has ever asked for, from the moment he learnt to speak, was to give Mickey Mouse a big hug, to simply hold Mickeys hand.  As Eric approached his 21st birthday, the big one in my family, I grew more and more depressed. His simple beautiful wish, the only thing Eric wanted out of life, was beyond my grasp. We barely make rent each month, and a trip to Disney is a thing of fantasy. My only dream in life soon became making sure my monkey got his hug. I thought I finally found a way, but then..........

The FIVE Principle

photo courtesy of Luke Hayne, one of my many muses!

Way back when my own, now adult, children received their individual ASD diagnoses,  there was precious little information out there. The Internet was in its infancy and so, to understand what AUTISM - a word I had only heard in Rainman and St Elsewhere- meant, I had to go to what was at the time a specialised, university run, psychological library ( I was young looking enough at the time to pass as a student- first time in my life I lied to 'authorities'). 

I was a techie. I had AOL and operated in DOS, heck I had used punch cards before I entered puberty.

But still, with that, back then the The Internet was NOT an option for information. 

So the University it was. 

I SCOURED the DSM IV ET ALIA.

I (and my children) encountered many , well, ummm, ok, yes, I'm going to say it, we encountered MANY ASSHOLES because the Internet was not as all encompassing as it is now. And people, and yes even PROFESSIONALS, were not as, ummmmm, AWARE, as they are now.

But wait, one sec. 

Back then we at least had the EXCUSE that knowledge of autism was only in university libraries (and was pathetic at that). 

We didn't have the internet to provide us with information at a mouse click any time of day or night.

So how did that leave us knowing MORE then we do now?  And What IS the FIVE principle?