World Autism Awareness Day

Today is World Autism Awareness Day.  In case you have been hiding under a rock the past week let me bring you up to date, the CDC (who I am not particularly fond of) has finally updated their severely outdated statistics to say that 1 in 88 children in the U.S. have autism. That brings the "boys" statistic up to 1 in 54 since boys are more likely to have autism.

These statistics are startling to say the least.  I don't care what your opinions are on where the 78% increase over the last decade came from, what matters is that we make sure that our next generation are able to live full, productive, happy lives.  It could be vaccines, it could be the environment, it could be pollution, or some chemical in food, or that they have just gotten better at diagnosing it.  It could even just be the next step in human evolution, I mean really with all this texting and typing how much do we actually talk to one another anyway?

Regardless of why or how, we need to make sure that these children have the help they need.  Some of the cases are severe and some of them are going to end up in homes but there are also a lot of them are on the higher end of the spectrum and they are likely to grow up to lead normal lives.  We just need to make sure that all of them get the best shot they can get as early as possible.

Diagnosis is lengthy and expensive, occupational therapy is expensive, ABA is expensive, physical therapy is expensive, speech therapy is expensive, special foods are expensive, sensory equipment is expensive, and yes medications are expensive.  Another blow to families affected by autism is that a lot of the time one parent stays home or works very few hours a week because no one else understand's the child's specific needs and how to handle them.  None of us have the luxury of calling up just anyone who is willing to babysit for a few bucks an hour for a night out.

 This month is Autism Awareness month.  If you have the money to spare, please consider donating to an autism organization.  I don't tell people what sites I donate to because everyone is trying to help these kids. While we might not all agree on the causes, therapies, or protocols we all share a common goal and that is to help these kids grow into happy, healthy, productive adults.  Here are some suggestions for those who are interested.

Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Generation Rescue
Autism Society
Autism Speaks
lend4health
TACA Now!