Hi All

It's a privilege to be part of the Jambav parent blogs; i have learnt much from the many bloggers here, and also been able to better tune my research in many of the areas i am interested in, with regard to autism. before i go any further i must present this ( JD Salinger forgive me) bouquet of early blooming parentheses to Rajendran and Vidya for having created such a vibrant community online.

                                                                    ((((()))))

ok; that done, now for a small introduction about the blog name.  I, named the blog 'about face' ; it's about autism, about  Sid, about us. Like the many parents here, who are trying to find ways to assuage their childs' difficulties, to help him overcome  the many inequities handed out to him. In the military, the english command given for getting  a platoon of men on parade to turn around is 'ABOUT FACE'.  Without doubt, autism robs our children from us, and it robs our children of their childhood.

The task of turning them around, and equipping  them with the basic survival kit to navigate thorugh life independently is not an easy one, and the turn around may not come  with the dexterity  or elegance of James Bond in his  Aston Martin executing that breathtaking manoevour in that-Bond-movie-with-all-that-ice -around, all smooth, suave, and , well, sexy. It will not happen one bright, sun kissed, dewdrop dressed, morning. The turn around will  occur  in seemingly imperceptable increments, like a supertanker making a turn, with all the elegance of a lumbering herd of superannuated circus elephants.

BUT, there will be change, and they will be better; they have us, their parents. With knowledge, diligence, and application, we can get them to turn around.

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Many times, and i mean many many times, we tend to limit their capabilities by the perceptions we have of their present and future abilities,  and already decide that they cannot play Hamlet. I am always reminded of a poem by TS Eliot  ( i am sure it was .... Alfred J Prufrock) in which somewhere towards the end it is written," No! I am not prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; I am just an attendant Lord, one that will do; to swell a progress, start a scene or two....." and i am always reminded not to see Sid in that light, a fatalistic approach, that what is , is, and what is not, it is not meant to be.   ( After Sid was diagnosed I have been able to interpret many things from an autistic point of view - and this poem by TSE fits right on the spectrum - in my opinion)

Anyway let me sign off by saluting all the parents everywhere, who have faith in their children, and parents of children with autism, who, what can i say - are special parents.

The climb is steep, and the firm foot is always the one below, but they dare to climb....

Ajai