This Is Autism – Tues 1st April 2014 #ThisIsAutism
By Jeannette | April 1, 2014
It’s the start of April, the commencement of Autism Awareness Month. A month in which everyone connected with the autistic spectrum will hope that greater awareness and acceptance is reached.
D and I had a prime example of how a little bit of understanding of autism could have really helped a situation this morning. The injection saga rumbles on but all was well in the end. I was extremely proud of how she coped with the unexpectedness, inwardly I was fuming but it’s so important to maintain that calm exterior for my children, they can be unempathetic at times but they definitely pick up on situations quickly.
Throughout April 2014, I will be including a guest post every evening, I’m looking forward to sharing them. I still have a few spaces left so please email me at (no spaces) autismmumma at aol dot com if you’d like to contribute.
Tonight’s post comes from Charlotte aka @clkh_. She, like me, has two diagnosed children on the spectrum and we’ve “known” each other for a while but not actually spoken in person, communicating instead via text/email and tweets. The downside to twitter is that those who you can really empathise with are, in reality, hundreds of miles away but at least we’re not relying on the post, that would take a while!!
One day I’d like to meet this lady and her lovely boys.
Over to Charlotte:
This Is Autism:
Jeannette asked me to write a few lines as part of her autism awareness initiative, this April. Firstly, I would like to thank Jeannette for consistently doing her part to raise awareness and promote autism acceptance – a daily blog is a huge commitment!
I’ve been thinking about what autism awareness means for my family, this year. I have two young boys on the spectrum – they were diagnosed within a year of one another and to begin with I wanted to do everything I could to help people understand what autism is; I wanted to dispel some myths about autistic traits (both my children are very much in touch with how other people are feeling, as I know many of our children are). Trying to promote understanding can be difficult; I found the community of people who live with, or whose lives are touched by autism incredibly inspiring and supportive but trying to reach out to people with no link to autism was frustrating – often filled with scepticism that questioned my parenting, or even my children’s diagnosis. However, every now and again you will meet a person who wants to understand and they do so without questioning how you parent, they don’t offer any unsolicited advice and by just listening they give you some hope that in time there will be far greater understanding and acceptance of autism.
So, for all the people over the last year who’ve listened to the concerns I have for my children; to those who have been in a position to act and make beneficial changes to my children’s lives; for all the autism community who come together across social media to support each other I would like to say thank you. Let’s hope a month of autism awareness helps to make more people just like you.
Finally, a little note from my boys… Our names are Oliver and Edward and we can do this!
Thank you Charlotte and a reminder that there is a programme on Autism tonight on BBC2, details below:
I hope everyone’s day has gone well, let’s make this month a positive one.
2 Comments
rebecca beesley on 26th April 2014 at 8:59 pm.
Brilliant Charlotte – I too love it when you find genuine people who just want to understand and care in a non-judgemental way (occassionally in the least expected of places e.g. when someone elderly takes an interest or someone who is usually a stern person who doesn’t stand for any ‘nonsense’ – which makes me realise I was judging them by thinking they wouldn’t be understanding).
Jeannette on 1st May 2014 at 9:37 am.
Your last comment is so true, I am guilty of pre-judging and thinking whoever-I-might-be-talking-to won’t understand and being surprised, first impressions are so important but can be wrong x