Autism Awareness Month

Did you know that April is Autism Awareness month? I bet you do. If you have kids in school they probably came home with a paper with puzzle pieces on the top that told you it was. It probably told you "how to spot someone with autism" like ours did, and little else. Did you read it or toss it? Don't be shy, no one is judging you here:) Anyway, other than the photocopied puzzle paper that you glanced at and then used to let your four year old turn into a "beautiful, fabulous, awesome hand bag" (Hey we have a really girly girl around here) what do you really know about autism. I am willing to bet that the majority of you know someone whose life has been touched by autism. In fact, if you regularly read this blog you know someone whose life has been touched by autism. I have been working on this post for most of the month now, and it is hard to know what to say because I have so much to say. I wanted to challenge you all to get involved and DO SOMETHING for autism this month. I was going to give you a list of suggestions of how you can become more aware of autism, or help those who are touched by autism. (I still could, if you want a suggestion PLEASE ask!) I was going to tell you some information about what life is like for an autistic person, or what life is like for an autistic person's family. I had a lot of great ideas, and who knows, I might do posts on a few of those things anyway, but for now I'm going to take a different approach. And here's why. I belong to a wonderful group for autism - those who have it, who are parents of those who have it, or people who love someone who has it. It's a great, upbeat, supportive group started by one of my previously mentioned heros. I decided to ask the group for some suggestions, and thier answers were all basically the same. The more I heard the more I realized that my post would take a different turn. I asked the group two questions, one, what could someone do to help a person who has autism and thier family, and what would you like someone to know about autism? The answers for both were the same... Tolerance.