“When I was young, I was put into a school for retarded kids for two years before they realized I actually had a hearing loss. And they called ME slow!”

Our 4-year-old son (who has autism) thinks the only thing that comes in containers is milk. The other day, he saw an orange juice container on the table and said, “I want milk.”

I said, “That’s not milk.”

He repeated, “I want milk.”

I said, “Look at the picture on the carton-it’s an orange! This is orange juice.”

To which he replied, “It’s orange milk!”

My 3-year-old, developmentally delayed son does not talk yet. He uses a lot of pointing and gesturing together with a few words, though, to make his needs known. One morning, as my husband was leaving the house, my son asked where he was going. My husband said: “I am going to the bank.” Later that morning, my little one asked me: “Where is Totty?” I decided to let him answer his own question by turning it around, “Where is Totty?” He strode purposefully over to the table and gave a bang! It dawned on me that this was his way of saying ‘bank.’ He was delighted that I understood him!