A day on the beach with my son 23 with autism.

Jarred

Spent the day with my son, Jarred, on the beach, He loved picking up seaweed and throwing it into the sea, watching it drift out with the tide while  bouncing on his toes, swinging his arms back and forth,  then it became an obsession and anything he could lay his hands on when into the sea including someones shirt.towel and hat.

A young girl was netting small fish out of the shallow water and putting them into a bucket. She spent time doing so. Jarred saw the bucket out of the corner of his eye and without a second glance sprinted 100m picked up the bucked and emptied the contents of the bucket before anyone could blink an eye. The poor girl could only look on in horror as her hard work was poured back into the sea. Her face almost in tears. My voice of NO JARRED echoed long after the deed was done, after hearing my voice Jarred dropped the bucket and ran on to pick up the next article on the sand. I know that his intentions was to throw the bucket into the sea and watch it float out with the tide. I caught up with him and took him to apologise to the girl after explaining to him what had happened. With sincerity he said sorry and added "I will never do that again". If he  understood the situation I will never know but from experiences I know that given the situation again he will repeat his action.  

When it was time to go he said, "NO I am having fun" and asked if he could play for another ten hours. In his conception of time this means a long time.


 Young adults with autism need your time, patience and understanding. Unfortunately we, as parents, do not always have the time they need.......


Has anyone had a similar experience?