April is coming fast! It signals the onset of spring and has also become Autism Awareness Month. Today, everybody is raising awareness about anything and everything, but Autism Awareness Month should definitely be highlighted to every parent and parent-to-be. Early intervention is the key to helping put the "puzzle" that is ASD together. My son is living proof of what can be accomplished through early intervention, sensory work, and consistency. I also thank from the bottom of my heart the dedicated people who put so much of their time and effort into my son's early intervention. There is no magic wand to wave over our ASD kids to make them better, it takes hours of therapy, love, patience, and consistency. I also think that one of the missing pieces to this puzzle is sensory related. My son's teacher and co-teacher told me that when he gets over-loaded and they take him out of the classroom environment and do focused sensory work with him for 10 or 15 minutes, he can come back into the classroom and focus diligently on his work. I thought to myself, "well, that's why sensory work was written into his original IEP." They were preaching to the choir on that one. For those of us parents that have ASD children, everyday is Autism Awareness Day---there is no escaping it, it maps out our days and our nights and effects every decision we make-even the most seemingly insignificant ones.
On another note, HBO has made a movie called "Temple Grandin." I can't tell you how excited I am about this movie. It has already aired, but I don't have cable let alone HBO. Clare Danes plays Temple Grandin in this movie and David Strathairn plays the professor that so influenced her life, and I believe Julia Ormond plays her mother. After the diagnosis of my son, I felt like I was being sucked into a black hole. There was too much information out there, too many different forms of therapy, too many parents who said they discovered the miracle that cured their child. I stayed away from all of it, but well meaning people in my life would come to me with all of that information and then some. I didn't care about someone else. ASD is a Spectrum Disorder, hence the ASD which means that it will present itself differently in every child and every course of treatment will be different, will have to be tailored to your child. I wanted to know how my son saw the world--I wanted to know how his brain worked differently from mine. I can't climb inside his head, but I could read about people who had the same disorder. So my son's case coordinator, a very dear lady who was born to do what she does, told me about Temple Grandin's books. So I bought them and read them. They are a must for any parent with a child on the spectrum. I also read a book about a young man that defined Pi to some incredible degree, but his name escapes me at this point.
I think that April is the perfect month to be Autism Awareness Month. April brings spring to us; we can begin to do more than just see the green grass and budding leaves in our minds' eye--we can see it happen right before our eyes. It gives us a fresh start and new hope. That is what raising awareness of Autism does---it gives parents with ASD kids hope for a fresh start, hope for a new treatment, hope for that one idea that becomes a breakthrough in what ASD is and where it comes from. For me, each day is another chance to help my son move one tiny step closer to what all parents with ASD kids want---a bright and independent future for their child.
