Severe Autism from a Parent’s Perspective, Told in Clichés

Severely autistic children and the adults they become face extraordinary challenges, including significant cognitive impairment, minimal or no language, sleeplessness, seizures, gut issues, and dangerous behaviors (i.e., aggression, self-injurious behavior, and elopement). Parenting individuals at this end of the spectrum is an intense, difficult, and typically lifelong journey. Amy Lutz refracts more than two decades of experience caring for her severely autistic son, Jonah, through five popular clichés either used by, or offered to, families like hers – from the intolerably cringe (“God only gives special kids to special parents”) to the blindingly obvious (“If you’ve seen one person with autism, you’ve seen one person with autism”), to the heartbreakingly apt (“Parents of severely autistic kids can never die”).