Thursday, April 1, 2010

April is Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness month and Tomorrow is World Autism Day. I am encouraging everyone to wear blue to try and start conversations about Autism. I hope you will join me and wear blue tomorrow! I try my best to be encouraging and I love my son, but the truth is it is a long and often difficult journey.

When my son was first diagnosed with autism no one had heard of the condition and now its a common term. What once only affected 1 in 10,000 children now is affecting conservatively 1 in 110. Many professionals and teachers are not trained in how to support and work with these kids. The professionals that do have training can't meet the demand. We need more resources for parents, teachers and researchers.

I started National Autism Resources because I had a dream of helping others. Now I am overwhelmed by the number of people contacting us from all over the world. Let's work together to help our kids!

3 comments:

Casdok said...

I have no problem starting converstaions on autism!!!

lou said...

i have no aspergers and i have no problems telling people why i am like i am although i worry i go on and on and on and on GET THEPICTURE

walking said...

Nothing gets me riled up more than people who suggest the higher rate is due to better ability to diagnose.

In 1991, when we contacted my sil, who was an SLP running pupil appraisal in her county and had fifteen years experience working with special needs children in her county, she said she had only seen ONE, ONE, UNO, EINS, child with autism. We had to search high and low for another family dealing with autism in our area!