"An empty feeling": BC dad speaks out after only 1 child comes to his autistic son's birthday

A B.C. dad said he hopes that by sharing a recent experience about his son’s lonely birthday party, he can help bring about some change for those who may be viewed as different.

David Chen is a Vancouver dad of four, three with special needs, he explained. One of them, Max, is in kindergarten this year.

Max, who has autism spectrum disorder, experienced a lot of challenges becoming comfortable enough to attend school, Chen said. Even on the first day, Chen said he was called within half an hour to come and get Max because “he couldn’t handle it."

“He just started full days of school about a month ago,” Chen said. “So imagine, doing three-quarters of the year, doing partial days.”

Chen said Max still struggles with focus and social settings and struggles to fully communicate all the time.

But for his sixth birthday, Chen said the family wanted to do something special as a birthday party is a "rite of passage."

He said they wanted to have an all-class party so they picked a venue and sent out invitations.

"Unfortunately, we got one person that said yes, two people that said no and 16 that didn't say anything," Chen said. "It was kind of an empty feeling."

For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/8839958/birthday-party-autism-spectrum-disorder-bc-child-embrace-differences/
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