Rosie O’Donnell Pens Essay About Her Daughter’s Autism: ‘She Teaches Me’
etonline.comRosie O'Donnell published a moving essay this week on her experience raising her youngest daughter, Dakota, who was diagnosed with autism when she was 2 years old.
The experience continues to teach O'Donnell about having «compassion much deeper than I ever did» and to «really listen and communicate in a way I never had with my other kids,» she writes.
Though candid about the struggle of such a learning curve, O'Donnell is clear: «The sense of vulnerability that comes with having a kid with autism has been a gift to me,» the 60-year-old actress writes. «She teaches me.»The essay, published in, starts with a recap of how Dakota first received her diagnosis.
O'Donnell writes that her daughter «was always highly verbal» and that «she has always been very cuddly...I thought she was quirky — and beautiful and perfect.» Still, O'Donnell knew «something was off» when she noticed Dakota was not answering to her name, and that the diagnosis felt like «a punch in the stomach.» Nevertheless, she quickly began gathering resources for herself and her daughter. «You can read as much as possible,» she writes, «but they say when you meet one person with autism, you've met one person with autism.
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