It's autism awareness month

It's international autism awareness month, which means that many autism organisations give special effort to educate people about autism.

What are you doing this month to do something special for autistic people?

We from Action for Autism started a new website here.

Hunger strike for autism

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to a comment from Jeremae on autism and school and short blogreview

As a mom of 4 autistic boys I meet all sorts of people.
I don't always blog about them, but sometimes my emotions need a blogpost.

One of the most recent walking disasters was described in Dealing with autism - the right persons needed.

Jeremae from Reviews and Resources was the first person to comment.

She wrote that her cousin was send to a normal school.
I’m glad he’s able to deal with that.
Many autistic children can’t.

She said the reason he was send there was so he wouldn’t think he’s different.

Being a mom of kids with autism, I know they are different and they need to learn as well as possible to deal with the challenges of society.
When his mom and family won’t accept him the way he is, how can he ever learn to accept himself?

Just a thought.


Jeremae's site is rather new.
19 posts in three months.
The blog is meant to be a review blog for herself, with views on all sorts of subjects.

We're waiting for more.

Happy Easter!

Eastertime is a time of traditions for many.

For us it was a revival of searching eggs.

My autistic son wanted to hide them and so he went into the garden with chocolate eggs and put them everywhere.

To be honest: he had the most fun.

We thought we'd found them all, but later in the afternoon (hopefully) the last was found between some plants.

Our easterdinner was simple.
The cook (not me) forgot to cook the eggs. LOL!

So this time we ate the chicken; with broccoli, lettuce and potatoes.

We had a very quiet day.
I guess everyone was still tired from going to bed too late because of the bad weather.

How was your day?

Autism sucks and the blame game

Isn't it great to start autism awareness month with a post about an autism blog?

I don't believe that coincidence rules our lives as much as certain people want to make me believe. Fact is, I'm way behind spreading commentluv on people and their blogs.
Jeannie commented on a post of march 24!!

Her blog has a name that sticks to my mind: Autism sucks.
It's written by a team of autism parents, and all who have children with autism are welcome to write.

Because the posts are real life, and are written very well, I recognize a lot from my own life and the lives of my children.
Take the last post: The blame game.

No week goes by without thinking about the causes of my sons autism.
Which features and characteristics do I share?
Have I done anything wrong in such a way that I contribute to the problem?

Their father is clearly on the autism spectrum too. It's impossible to ignore that.
But do I play a part too?

Like Katrina, who has written "The blame game" I'm very sensitive to light.
I was among the first to wear self-coloring glasses and I remember one of the lecturers telling me to put off my sunglasses or leave.
I left... straight to the medical department to get permission to wear them at university.

Only one of my sons has a good sense for detail, but I pity them all, because I'm the one who observes everything and remembers visual details so well, that I'm still able to describe situations in detail from 40 years ago.
But almost all family members had a great eye for detail. We all grew up as story tellers. Our family history is detailed and needs to be written down before it disappears.

The emotions I had when I realised my oldest son had asperger syndrome (about 18 to 20 years ago) are long gone.
Autism sucks, oh yes it does, but I'm not playing the blame game anymore.
There are days I fail to keep my mind focussed on the needs of the kids and I feel disappointed that my life isn't even 5% of what I want it to be, but I know it's just natural to feel that way.

We don't have therapies and support available like in many other countries.
It's just a good diagnosis and maybe a few sessions of therapy and some meds. That's it.

I've been my kids speech therapist, I've been their behavioral therapist and everything else.
Because of that I haven't been able to have the career that was expected. No pension.
It makes me sad that so many parents have a very hard life, because society isn't aware enough that autism is just as bad as having no legs.
My kids need a psychological wheelchair.

Well, you see the associations the blog "Autism Sucks" raises.

When you don't know anything about autism you'll be able to get insight. When you live with autism you'll sure feel a lot better seeing others are dealing with the same issues like you do.