Home, Education, Leisure, Work, Independence & Planning a Future

1. Autism At Home
   
   Having an autistic family member is a challenge, and the nature of the challenge varies depending on the relationship. If you’re the parent of an autistic child, your challenge is to raise a happy and functional child without neglecting any siblings. If you have an autistic parent, to some extent you will find yourself raising yourself, as well as leaning more heavily on the other parent. If you have an autistic brother or sister, your parents may expect or even ask you to help raise your brother or sister. Autistic people who have families of their own will find the hectic pace and inability to plan for every contingency to be stressful. If you are a non-autistic person in a traditional male/female relationship with an autistic person, your partner’s lack of empathy may be trying.
2. Autism and Education
   
   Autism Education. Having to follow an education demands a great deal of independence, the extent of which depends on the sort of study.
3. Autism and Leisure
   
   Leisure time is, by definition, time when you aren’t compelled to do anything. To an autistic person, who needs structure and routine, it can be painful. Given a choice, the autistic will choose solo activities, or else a group activity with a great deal of structure, such as a chess club. Social skills are the weakness of autistic people. Holidays are also stressful times for the autistic because they represent a deliberate, chaotic disruption of normal routines. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t make the holidays meaningful and enjoyable for your autistic child.
4. Autism and Work
   
   The workplace traditionally requires social skills and multi-tasking, making work very challenging for the autistic. They require more time to learn new skills, they must concentrate on what they are doing, they require more time to turn these new skills into habits, and they can be inflexible. But they excel in jobs which require precision and attention to detail. They are honest, reliable and hard working. If an autistic employee knows what to do, he or she will do high quality work. Quantity might be variable, however. They are also attracted to work in which they can help other people. If you can find a suitable job for an autistic person which plays to his or her strengths rather than being impeded by his or her weaknesses, or if you as an employer have the flexibility to create such a work environment for an autistic employee, the results will be satisfying to everyone involved.
5. Independence and Autism
   
   Living alone and independently is a balancing act for anyone. Work and study, finances, hygiene, health, neighbors require attention and energy. So do other life tasks such as training, relationships and friends. The person with ASD must concentrate harder on each of these tasks, and thus may not have the energy to do them all. Things can be neglected, and the problems only become obvious after the person has tried living alone and discovered that it didn’t work. If living independently doesn’t work, other options are semi-independent living, living at home, foster homes, skill-development homes, supervised group living, and institutions. Some combination of these methods, or moving from one to another as is most suitable at a given time in a person’s life, is also an option.
6. Planning a future
   
   As your child becomes an adult, through treatment and individualized education, his or her symptoms may lessen. However, autism is likely to affect the individual throughout his or her life. They will probably always have difficulty relating to others and communicating effectively.