Personal Narrative: My Personal Experience With Autism And Family Therapy

All my life I’ve been treated differently. I grew up in therapy basically. My sister is Autistic and she was diagnosed at about 6 or 7. I’ve had to attend individual and family therapy since I was 4 or 5. My mother didn’t really tell me my sister was Autistic until I was about 11 or 12. Growing up, people always asked me why my sister was so weird. I used to say she was just different. That’s because I didn't know much about Autism. As I grew up, I started to understand my sister more. I realized that there was nothing wrong with her, she just thought differently.
My sister struggled with behavioral issues majorly. She also was not very good at Academics. When she was 15, my mom sent her to residential treatment for her behavioral issues. She was sent to a Residential Treatment Center (RTC) in Utah. The way her brains works is, she doesn’t understand the difference between right and wrong or yes and no. This can be shown as defiance towards medical professionals. When I was 15, I was sent to residential treatment; I was a little more difficult than others so I was moved placements about 5 times. My mom has always thought I had some sort of Aspergers or a behavioral issue. At my 2nd placement which was Wilderness Therapy, my therapist had me undergo psychological testing; the outcome was indeed Autism.
In “Just
She tells us how she is an English major and speaks perfect English but never thought of her mother not knowing perfect English. Tan thanks of her mother’s language as family language as she speaks to her mother in that way too. She explains that just because her mother does not speak in perfect sentences, does not mean that she is any less intelligent than her daughter who speaks in perfect English. This related to my topic because people judge Autism as less intelligent just like not speaking perfect