My advice to parents with kids on the autism spectrum

Listen up parents: as I don't have kids, but one day hope to, I do have some words of advice, but some of them come from a child's point of view. I'll refine this list as I go, so call this a perpetual blog entry.

1) What might work with one autistic child might not work for another. For me, some neurotypical approaches were more appropriate for me than a modified approach. In a certain situation, you might have to try several approaches before settling on one that works.
2) Don't think your child is limited because of their autism. We've been breaking down barriers for ages now, and those barriers are countless. This year alone we've broken down a few, one being beauty pageants. Maybe in 2015 or 2016 I'll break down the politics barrier. (Mark my words: I'll be upset if I'm not the first person on the autism spectrum elected to public office).
3) Don't be afraid to force them out of their comfort zone once in a while. If I wasn't, I wouldn't be able to make phone calls myself, drive to Canada, etc. But...
4) Don't drive your kids to the point they'll have a breakdown. My stepdad (I'll use the Southern cliche: Bless his heart!) has been known to do this to me. You need to understand what their capabilities are and work within that, while leaving room and sanity for that to expand.
5) Embrace your child's unique talents: for instance, I can dismember a computer faster than Freddie Kruger can dismember a human (sorry for the graphic language!). But I can also reassemble that computer. That strange hobby might be a quick path to a living in a few years.

And finally, for now:

6) Have an open ear: many of us are able to communicate, and some (like myself) are able to communicate with near fluency. As Carly Fleischmann has shown, even non-verbal autistics have a sense of humor and an opinion on a given issue. And me? I have opinions that can run from here to San Francisco! Okay, let's make that LA!