Educate, Include, Empower, Embrace
I sat down to write Part Two of our Disney Adventure, and found my fingers itching to write about the CDC's new report highlighting another rise in the number of children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. While Disney is always a fun topic, I think that it is going to have to take a backseat today.
Yesterday the CDC released a report indicating that 1 in 68 children are diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. If you click the above link, I think you will be pleasantly surprised that their report offers hope, calls for more information, more awareness, more education, a plea for early diagnosis. It does not slap the epidemic stamp on our children, it does not induce fear, and iterates the need for clinicians to use developmental screening tools to monitor a child's development and to take note of deficiencies, to educate parents on early intervention tools available.
It is also important to understand that this report is based off of children 8 years of age, and from 11 ADDM sites. In addition, the results are based on data collected in 2010, meaning that the children in the study were 8 at the time the data was collected.
I feel that it is important to take from these numbers that children with Autism, adults with Autism, are all a part of our community. You know someone with Autism. You know a family affected by this diagnosis. It should now be considered a part of our society's norm. While I understand the need and the want to know the cause, we need to embrace the community it affects. We need to ensure that our community at large is educated, understands the need of the individual with Autism, and offer community support, inclusion, and opportunities, equal to those of their typical peers.
When C was first diagnosed I found myself scouring the web, searching for a cause, secretly hoping that I was not to blame. I prayed that I didn't "give" this to my son. My grief turned to guilt. I wasn't alone, my husband felt guilty too. We simultaneously reassured one another that we were not to blame, while searching for hidden truths to the suspicion about ourselves. We started down a dark path, until one day we realized obsessing over the "why" wasn't going to help C. We redirected our efforts. We began looking at interventions, therapies, tools and accommodations to help C thrive. We educated ourselves and our family. We are continuously learning when to take a risk and push C's comfort threshold, and when to simply let him be... him.
C having Autism isn't scary, it isn't the end of the world, it simply is. We hear that we should strive for our children to be like their "typical" peers, but what does that really mean? Who defines typical. We need to help our children survive in their environment. We need to help our children cope with the enormity that the world is. We need to give strategies to them, to ensure that they are reaching their full potential, and pushing them to be more than that. While a "cure" sounds fantastic in theory, what are we curing?
1 in 68 is alarming. What does 1 in 68 mean? It is no longer a "Disorder" that is rare, it is no longer an anomaly. Autism is a reality. We need to continue to educate our communities. Autism Spectrum Disorder. It is not a disease. It is not communicable. It is not scary. Our children are not violent. Our children have feelings. Our children understand, more than many can even comprehend. Our children have rights. Our children have names. Our children aren't just Autism. Autism isn't our children.This is the face of a child with Autism.Autism Awareness Month is right around the corner. What does that mean? It means educate your neighbors, your co-workers, your family and friends. Take a moment to raise awareness. Does your child or a loved one, or a friend's child have Autism, what about ADHD, Developmental Disability, Intellectual Disability, Down Syndrome, Epilepsy, Cerebral Palsy, Oppositional Defiance, the list goes on and on, but what I want you to take from this is to please, please help educate those who need help understanding. Reach out to those who need help, support, respite. Don't look at 1 in 68 as a sad number, see it as a reason to help fight for the rights and abilities of those who fit within the statistic.
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