Piece by Piece: Missing Boy Shines Light on Autism

When a 17-year-old boy with Asperger’s Syndrome was reported as missing, I felt an immediate kinship to the story. All parents worry about their children, but those with a child that has an autistic spectrum disorder have a whole different group of worries. I understood the extra level of panic Nathan Carman’s parents were feeling and I felt the need to do something, anything to help.

I was not the only parent feeling that way. I happened to learn about the story just as a Facebook page seeking help was created. I was one of the first five people to join “Find Nathan Carman” and hit the share button. Within less than two days, nearly 3,000 people had joined the page as people learned about the page and shared it with their friends all over the country. One post read that the page had reached Australia.

Many were connected to the autism community. They shared prayers, ideas, and genuine concern. Some even offered to let Nathan ride their horses or visit their farms, since Nathan’s parents thought Nathan had left home because he was distraught about his horse dying this past winter.

On some of the news websites that were sharing the story there was also a collection of people that made comments that were quite insensitive to the family and those with autistic spectrum disorders. I found the contrast between the families that understood so completely and those that had no concept of autism a bit startling.

 With so many children now on the spectrum and all the attention given to stories about autism each year, it is a little disheartening to see the types of comments that show that many in the general public totally misunderstand autism.

Nathan’s story has a happy ending. He was found in Virginia safe and sound, having traveled all the way from Connecticut. We may never know exactly why Nathan was heading to Florida. Those that understand autistic spectrum disorders know that Nathan had a very definite reason even if can’t explain it to us.

Now for the next question, how do we explain autistic spectrum disorders to the rest of the world? Nathan proved we have a long way to go.

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