Jaden is the sweetest human on the whole planet. He has so much love, full of love, super kind, he just doesn’t have the same judgment that other people have.
What activities do you do together?
We like skating in the winter. We love swimming. We like going under the water. He does a lot of puzzles, he’s very very fast. He just sees them in a way different way than I see them.
What advise do you have for siblings of autistic people?
For people who have brothers and sisters with autism, always try to be their biggest advocate. There’s going to be lots of times, especially if you have a brother or sister like Jaden, where they can’t speak for themselves. You have to remember that you now have to take on that role sometimes. With Jaden, one thing I’m learning is to find a balance on working on being the best sibling I can be and also giving myself grace. I think you’re always going to make mistakes – sometimes he gets on my nerves – he’s my brother. Every sibling gets on your nerves. Sometimes I’ll raise my voice at him or have a bad day and probably not give him as much attention as I need to and I always want to be aware of that and work on just improving from that point. It’s different than having a normal sibling relationship because you don’t have that person telling you where you can improve and telling you, “Hey we need to work on this in our relationship. This needs to be done better.” It kind of falls on me so I have to be hyper aware of that all the time. Sometimes it’s tricky but at the end of the day, you know it’s worth it. I want Jaden to have the best life that he can have and that’s something that I always want to keep on my mind and keep working on.
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