Something Else to Worry About

Just when we think we've mastered the art of Logan, he throws a new challenge our way.

He loves to ride his scooter up and down the sidewalk (while we supervise him, of course).  The other day while I was gone, he rode his scooter down the sidewalk and noticed some kids playing in their front yard.  Instead of turning around to come back, he stopped, and started screaming at the kids.  Basically, he was screaming at them to "shut up", which confused them a lot, but what was scary to us was that no matter how much my husband yelled for him to come back, he didn't listen and continued the behavior.  In the end my husband had to run down to the end of the street and get him, apologize to the kids, and thank the powers that be that they understood when he explained about Logan's autism.

This is a new behavior that's never happened before.  It's alarming, because one day, Logan will antagonize the wrong person, who doesn't understand autism or doesn't care, and he could get really hurt, we could have an angry parent on our doorstep, or in a worse case scenario, the cops.

This isn't an unusual scenario, either.  In June 2014, some neighbors in Sunnyvale, CA, got together and sued the family of an autistic boy, claiming that his behavior was a public nuisance.  You can read the article here:

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/09/16/neighbors-sue-sunnyvale-family-claim-their-autistic-boy-is-public-nuisance/

This case also illustrates a problem that a lot of parents of low-functioning autistic children face:  as they grow older and hit puberty, they are harder to control.  It's something else to worry about.