About a year ago, a good friend of mine’s son was diagnosed with Autism. Before his diagnosis, she had a feeling that something wasn’t right and thankfully because she listened to her instinct, her son was diagnosed and is getting the treatment that he needs. Before meeting my friend, I had never met a child with Autism. Honestly I wouldn’t have known he was autistic, if she didn’t tell me. He behaves better than my 5 year old :). I’m writing this post, not to tell my friend’s story, but to help bring awareness to this very misunderstood and underfunded disease.

In the Summer I read this amazing book called “The Spark“, by Kristine Barnett, which helped open my eyes to what Autism is all about. It showed me how these children are absolutely brilliant but they can’t communicate or express themselves, which then leads them to become frustrated. I wrote a post about it, click here to read about how much this book touched me and how being diagnosed with Autism is not a death sentence. We need to start looking at Autistic children as true gifts to us and to society. In Kristine’s book, she explains that her 15-year-old son is on track to win a Nobel Prize for his work in theoretical physics. She also recounts how her son had predicted Hurricane Katrina, just by examining weather charts and patterns. Imagine what a mind like this could do to help this world, to help society? Imagine that there are hundreds of thousands of children like my friend’s son and Kristine’s son, just waiting for their potential to be discovered!!!

A study just released some very alarming stats that 1 in 68 children in the US have Autism and Health Canada states that 1 in 150-160 are Autistic. Is this because we have better ways of testing children? Do we test them earlier? Do we have more environmental causes? No one really knows, but without further study and funding we will never know. We will also never know the full potential of these beautiful souls. The symbol for Autism is a puzzle piece, because the illness is a puzzle that has many sides and facets and that in order for scientists and researchers to put the pieces together, they need to better understand Autism and in order to do that, they need more funding!!!

 

The month of April is Autism awareness month and the company, Stella & Dot, is selling 4 fabulous items and the net proceeds go to helping support Autism Awareness. This is a 2-fold, win-win, situation. You get to add some great colour to your wardrobe and you get to support a great cause in the process.

I dedicate this post to my friend, her son and to all mother’s, children and families who are affected by Autism. I hope that someday soon we will no longer have a stigma attached to Autism and that every child will be able to get the help they need.

May this blog inspire you to help support research for Autism and to help breakdown the walls of stigma surrounding this illness.

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Happy Friday and Weekend Everyone!!!!