AUTISM SOLUTIONS
Changing the Way
We Celebrate Birthdays
with Autism
By Calleen PETERSEN
r my family.
Birthdays can be hard fo
with it comes
My son has autism, and
ith others.
difficulty connecting w
lay with oth-
He’s always wanted to p
e social skills
er kids, but he lacked th
d play.
to navigate friendship an
ings quickly
He doesn’t process th
ing disorder,
enough due to a process
stop some-
so when kids ask him to
compute for
s
ay
w
al
’t
n
es
o
d
it
,
g
in
th
culty forming
iffi
d
in
s
lt
su
re
is
Th
.
im
h
s.
and retaining friendship
I
say birthdays are difficult because
usually no one comes to his parties.
A couple of years ago, despite invit-
ing multiple families to celebrate his
day with us, only one showed up,
and they were two hours late. Really,
he just wanted people to show up
and give him gifts because that is what
he had seen happen to his sister.
Birthdays are also hard for me with his
sister because a lot of kids will show up
for her birthday. I always feel torn like it’s
38 | Autism Parenting Magazine | Issue 74