...is to learn to pity the people who judge you and your family, because their lives are poorer for their lack of empathy for other human beings. People like that will never have the joy of knowing someone as precious as your son.

As someone who has spent 25 years working with kids with a wide range of special needs, I can tell you that you will always encounter the judgers. All you can control is your response to them. You can let them get to you, or you can understand that they are simply ignorant to a large part of the world around them.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I encountered a mom with a baby in a stroller. The baby, about three or four months old, had an obvious birth defect, but was still a sweet, precious baby. I cooed and told the mom how precious she was. The mom immediately welled up with tears and told me she thought so, too, but that I was the first stranger to notice. People just don't think about how their reactions are noticed. This mom had clearly longed for just a little bit of the same recognition that any new mom would get for her precious baby. She had surely seen other "normal" babies getting lavished with attention from strangers, while her baby was consciously ignored.

The "invisible" disabilities are even harder. A wheelchair or a cane make it easy to accept a cognitive or behavioral problem. When people can't see physical evidence of something wrong, they assume that there is nothing wrong, and in their heads, what are really symptoms of a disability become the fault of some parenting deficiency. I've found that cruelty that is the result of ignorance can, more often than not, be eradicated through education. Being armed with information about a disability that makes it easier to understand can diffuse tense situations.

As others have said, these episodes may very well be something that Connor grows out of. If he doesn't, though, educating yourself and him as much as possible about his problem will help you all respond more effectively to strangers.