April is autism awareness month. 1 in 68 children are diagnosed every year now. I assume you have a neighbor, a coworker or a friend of a friend who’s child is on the spectrum, but why aren’t enough families talking about it? We can’t learn from others that promote that life is perfect.
Over the past few years after Joshua was diagnosed with Aspergers/High Functioning Autism (Autism Spectrum Disorder) we quickly became not only supportive to every therapy that was suggested... but experts on them. Autism is a lifestyle, and it may be not be completely understood by any other family other than ones surrounded by it. However, we have embraced our roles as autism warriors and want to help any other family who is affected by this diagnosis. When Joshua was first diagnosed I had no one to turn to. He never spun in circles, he never flapped his hands and he was very social… with me. At around a year I realized he wasn’t paying much attention to other children, he loved to play on his own and his interests seemed more like obsessions. We started speech and occupational therapy quickly, but therapy doesn’t end when you leave the office, it’s all day everyday. I admit I became obsessed with what I could do to help him. Every minute was spent helping him along or online searching for answers. Looking back I wished I could have told myself he’d be just fine if you give it time.
Now at 5 years old he gets himself dressed, plays with his sister, is the smartest in his class and loves Batman and Star Wars. Just the other day I realized he had talked all day long!!!
It’s so hard dealing with the unknown when your child is a toddler with this disorder, but to see the progress and put faith in therapies that work is priceless! I can’t imagine not being able to experience this until after going through it.
So our family has decided to start a blog/ website. We wanted to help any family searching for answers and tips like I did. I had found that the best advice came from… other moms!!! No two children are alike with this disorder.
The saying goes… “If you’ve met one kid with autism, you’ve met one kid with autism.” Yes Jenny McCarthys child was more severe than mine, no I don’t believe vaccines caused it, but devotion, therapy and diet changed everything…and we want to share our experience to help others. He is in a typical classroom, he will have a normal job, but he will never be typical. Our goal is to educate and raise awareness that ASD is treatable and more common than is perceived. I don’t want to change a thing about my son, but I want to change your perception.
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