Why do I support Autism Awareness?

April is Autism Awareness Month, and April 2nd is Autism Awareneness Day where everyone is supposed to wear blue to show support.

Why do I promote Autism Awareness?  

Obviously as a parent of a child with Autism I want to show support for what he is dealing with.  I want to share with the world the “road map” that I have learned to navigate.  As a parent, it is my job to prepare my child for the world, but I also feel a need to prepare the world for my child.  Those who are close to him need to know what his triggers are and how his mind works, and also how wonderfully bright and funny he is.  

So I raise awareness for my son so that he can have the most amazing life possible and be comfortable in his world.

But it’s more than awareness and support… its understanding and acceptance.  That is the end goal of wearing blue and sharing Autism Awareness Ribbons.

Many times since my son’s diagnosis I have found myself thinking of an elementary school classmate of mine.  His name was Trevor and it was obvious to us all (even at a young age) that Trevor was different.  He cried (and by that I mean he screamed at the top of his lungs) for hours after his grandmother dropped him off at school each day.  It became an expected event.  “Oh, that’s just Trevor”.   I remember thinking how he talked weird and ran funny.  No one would play with him, or maybe he didn’t want to play.  And on many occasions, we would hear Trevor being spanked all the way down the hall.  His behaviors were not to be tolerated.  I suppose the thought was that discipline was the only way to “fix” him.  I sit here now with tears rolling down my face and I want to reach out to that Trevor.  That scared little boy who was so misunderstood.  He was crying for help, but no one was listening.  I don’t know that he had Autism, back then I guess it wasn’t something many people talked about.  And I don’t know what ever happened to Trevor.  I try to think that he became a well-functioning adult despite his rough childhood, but the reality is he never got the help he needed. 

I want to raise AWARENESS of Autism so that people know the symptoms.

I want to SUPPORT those who have Autism or are affected by it.

I want to spread UNDERSTANDING so that children who can’t express themselves can be understood.

I want to spread ACCEPTANCE so that we may eliminate the stigma and children, like Trevor, can learn that it’s OK to be different.