May and Channing tried to convince themselves that their son, Patrick, was all right. They tried to ignore that facts that Patrick was very low to talk and babbled much of the time, that he woke frequently during the night and seemed to need only a few hours’ sleep, that he sometimes laughed hysterically, that he did not enjoy his birthday party of play with the other children or show any interest in opening his presents. Finally, when they could ignore Patrick’s unusual behaviors no longer, they had him evaluated by a team of experts in childhood problems. After conducting sensory, physiological, and brain test, the head of the team told Mary and Channing what all parent dread to hear; “your son has a serious problem. Patrick is autistic.”
Autistic children typically have some degree of mental retardation, poorly developed language skills that may or may not improve with age, and unusual repetitive behaviors, such as rocking or unexplained laughing. Sometimes they possess a special skill at which they excel, such as art, and music, most require some sort of supervision their entire lives.