It's Autism Awareness Month. Everywhere I go I see the billboard "a child is diagnosed with autism every 20 minutes", I see things posted on Facebook from friends, and even the Empire State Building was lit up blue in honor of Autism Awareness.
Now I'm going to tell you a secret. I am aware of autism, I have an amazing 6 year old boy with autism, but sometimes...I forget! That's right folks, sometimes I forget that my kid is even on the spectrum. If you came to my house chances are you'd be hyper-aware that he has autism. The things he does are either strange, seem rude, or are impressive beyond his years, you'd say "oh this kid is different". I don't see him that way, I am used to him, this is who he is, and how he is. Everything he does is 'normal' to me. The only times I really super aware is when he gets frustrated because he can't tell me something or he's around other children. Of course I'm aware he has autism, it dictates quite a bit of our life, but it's just how we live and it's perfectly normal to me. He blows me away with his computer skills, motor skills, and problem solving. I feel incredibly blessed to have a kid who is that high functioning. I've been in the low functioning zone before and I don't miss it, I hope I never have to see my child in that much torment ever again.
I know the economy more than blows right now, but if you've got any jingle and you'd like to donate to an autism charity there are links to sites at the bottom left of this blog. I don't tell people what sites to 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.
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