Saturday, December 24, 2011

At Christmastime, Autism Creates Family Struggles

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- When Suzanne Holman takes her two children, Alex and Will, to see Santa Claus, she waits in the line while Will rides the escalator up and down with his father.
Will, 5, is too fidgety to wait so long, so the escalator keeps him entertained without overloading his senses.
Will is autistic, which poses special challenges around Christmastime. The disorder affects the brain's normal development of social and communication skills.
"We usually have to prep Santa and his helpers to make sure he understands this is an autistic child and there may be some issues with that. Santa's scary to him," Flowery Branch resident Suzanne Holman said.

No comments:

Post a Comment