Fwded from Whatsapp .
I have received this video circulating around of my son, John.
Let me share about him.
He is suffering from 2 conditions, Autism (on the high functioning spectrum) and ADHD and was diagnosed since young. He went through professional help since diagnosis n special school too. Because of the nature of his conditions, his rigid n Impulsive behaviour gets him into unnecessary trouble.
When he completed his education, he could not hold down a job due to his sleep difficulty n so he was not doing much the past 10 over years. He likes to have friends but could not get along with same age peers so along the way he discovered that young children are more susceptible to him. But on the other side, his communication with them is not appropriate due to internet / social media influence/exposure to implicit content, this behaviour is partly due to his difficulty in his social communication n interactions. One of his difficulty can be seen in the video, where John so easily gave out his personal details without considering the consequences of it. If this were from a neurotypical person, he would have hide or lie or even try to run away. As a parent, this is a challenging child of mine and helping him to understand the world is a journey n experience. Give us time to manage his problems.
I urge n hope that this video to be stopped circulating n preferably sent to the police to dealt with the matter appropriately. This can also help us by not complicating the matter further n thus harder for me, the professionals n the authority to manage it.
I fully understand that all parents will be concerned and anxious in that situation n the natural reaction to deal with it.
I sincerely apologise to the parent of the 9 year old girl.
Thank you for reading.
Janet (mother of John)
