April 2nd this year must be Autism Action Day!
I feel fortunate to be surrounded by friends and family who are extremely supportive of Mikey. I am aware however that as much as many of you want to help you don’t always know how to.
So today I ask all of my friends and family and everyone who wants to show support to a person with Autism to take ACTION! The action I am asking you to take starts at home, to all parents who are blessed to have “typical,” children I ask you to educate them about Autism, to teach them compassion, tolerance and acceptance. Teach your children that we as humans need to take care of one another and that some people may need more help than others and it’s our job to help them. Ask your children’s Teachers and Principals what at are they doing to teach their students about Autism and to promote acceptance and awareness amongst their student body? With 1 in 88 children affected and a limited amount of schools specific to Autism, I am pretty sure that there are many students in your children’s schools affected with Autism. Find out what your school is doing to support this community of students with Autism and how you and your child can get involved. If you know there is a student in your child’s class with Autism, encourage your child to be friendly to them and if your children are young enough you can see if their parents would like to set up a play date.
One of my biggest fears for Mikey is that he will not have a friend or even worse be teased or bullied by his peers. With the problem of bullying in this young generation, the likelihood of it happening to a child with Autism is even higher. The thought of this happening to my sweet son makes me nauseous. The only way to ensure that this doesn’t happen is to educate our children to help and look out for each other. To teach them that even though someone is different, it doesn’t make them less.Some of my proudest moments as a Mother and as an Aunt is seeing one of my nieces or nephews trying to interact with Mikey or offering to help or teach him something. As I said, this is first taught in the home, and if it’s one thing I know, even if Mikey doesn’t make many, “friends,” he will always have his forever friends, his cousins and as he gets older I know that he will need them and their love more and more.
As we all know children with Autism grow to be Adults with Autism and another problem in the Autism community is what will happen to these adults? Where will they work and how will they be a part of their community. So today I also ask you to ask your work place if they employ any adults with Autism and if not encourage them to start, or perhaps to create an internship program for these young adults so that they can become a functioning part of the community. If given the opportunity these Adults have so much to offer to the workforce.So please, today on Autism Awareness Day (and the days to follow) help me to prepare the world for my 1 in 88.
Mikey with his Forever Friends his Cousins :)
