This essay was initially published in About US is an initiative by The Washington Post to cover issues of identity in the United States. Sign up for the newsletter.
Having a child on the autism spectrum comes with a host of challenges: Sensory overload that turns into meltdowns and awkward social interactions with no eye contact are just two. I didn’t expect that intolerance and bullying from adults would be among the challenges we would have to endure.
My daughter, Chloe, was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder when she was 4 years old. She is an intelligent and caring child with a passion for reading, music and art. Though she struggles socially, she gets along well with other children and, for the most part, they are unfazed by her differences. It is adults who have caused problems.
A year before her diagnosis, while going through the initial evaluation process, we enrolled Chloe in a local preschool. She was occasionally overstimulated in class, causing her to scream and cry. She was never violent and would eventually calm down and move on. But my husband and I received a phone call a month into the school year from her teacher, who said she had received persistent complaints from two parents.
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