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Assistance dog: The focus is on the animal - not on my son (symbol picture)
Photo: Elva Etienne / Getty Images
My son loves the fire department.
He knows all cars and vehicle types and has known since kindergarten what a B-hose and a balaclava are used for.
For his fourth birthday he wanted a pair of hydraulic shears, and for my birthday he gave me his toy fire engine, thinking I would be as excited as he was.
He is also very athletic and an avid dancer and actor.
He was also Craig Turner in the musical "Tina - The Musical" on a big stage in Hamburg.
Photo: Lina Moreno / DER SPIEGEL
Sarah Wiedenhöft
, 28, is a freelance journalist and doctoral candidate.
As a young, queer, single mother of a black child, she is often confronted with prejudice.
In her column she writes how she deals productively with the injustices of everyday life.
My son can imitate other people's feelings, their gestures and facial expressions very well.
But it is not always easy for him to understand them.
Because my son is autistic.
It took almost ten years to get this diagnosis.
My son was born in the 28th week of pregnancy and weighed 1,600 grams.
For a long time, doctors and teachers attributed his special behavior to these difficult times.
At the beginning of the year, shortly after the Corona shutdown, our attending doctor finally expressed this suspicion during a digital consultation.
This was followed by a multitude of other tests and hours of conversations, ultimately confirming the suspicion.
In addition, the doctors determined a partial giftedness.
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