Coach’s Kid

I have enjoyed reading John Paul Scotto’s essays in The Sun and on Longreads. My seven-year-old son was diagnosed two years ago with high-functioning autism and anxiety, and some of Scotto’s experiences remind me of him. I’m grateful for the insider’s view into what my son may be feeling or thinking but doesn’t have the words for yet.

I’m a retired school psychologist who worked in an early-intervention program diagnosing three-to-five-year-olds who were on the autism spectrum — a diagnosis that brought support services to the children and their families. It was a wonderful job in many ways, delivering understanding, acceptance, and assistance. A downside of my work was that I almost never saw what happened once these children grew older.

John Paul Scotto’s honest reflections are surely helpful to adults who have always felt different in some way but have not had guidance in dealing with their feelings. I imagine his writing is also equally helpful to children and their families who are wondering about or already in that process of finding support. Honesty and vulnerability can be very positive things.

I appreciate John Paul Scotto’s honesty and humor in “Coach’s Kid,” and I relate to his desire for his father’s acceptance. It’s quite a dance to navigate childhood and then eventually arrive at a friendship-type relationship with our fathers. I am hopeful that Scotto’s diagnosis has given him permission to forgive behavior that he and his folks didn’t understand, and I’m so grateful that, rather than drowning, he fell off of that pool filter onto the grass and, eventually, into readers’ lives.

John Paul Scotto’s writing is sensitive, poignant, and insightful. His essay “Coach’s Kid” [August 2023] left me with a lump in my throat. I very much look forward to reading his memoir when it comes out.