Autism

[jewellolli]

My son is a 3 yr old with autism He is normally pretty well-behaved, but frequently gets hyper and jumps on people or rams his head into their legs. I try to take him to mall play areas and parks so he can be around other kids. He usually gets attached to a particular child that he sees and cannot stay away from them. He squeals and grabs the kid around the waist from behind and starts jumping up and down excitedly. Sometimes other little kids think this is funny, but some kids get really upset. My problem is that other kids' parents feel free to yell at my son and tell him what to do. I have had adults call my son names and scold him loudly. Once, I turned around and a woman picked my son up by the arms and sat him down harshly on a bench in the mall play area and started scolding him. When I asked her what the x%#$! she was doing, she got defensive and said my son was hitting other kids. I had been watching my son the whole time and never saw him hit anyone. Also, none of the kids in the play area were crying to appeared to be hurt. However, this woman continued to yell and accused me of not knowing how to control my child. The woman's friend had gone to mall security to "tell" on me. Mall security never showed up, but I did get starred at because this crazy woman kept screaming and pointing to her daughter and insisting that my son hit her. The woman's friend said my son had also hit her kid. I don't know what to think because I have never seen my son hit anyone. Regardless, I took my son home. On the way, I mentioned to this raving lunatic that my son has autism and if he got excited and "patted" her daughter, it was really no big deal. After that, I really got made fun of by a group of nearby women who claimed that mothers like me were the reason kids turn out so badly and destroy society. Does anyone have any thoughts on this matter? What would you have done?