Autism Awareness Begins with the Letter "A"

Are you already trying to think of how many times you can utter the words “April Fool’s” today? It’s April 1st and although I LOVE a good joke and pulling one over on others, especially my husband, today is also the start of Autism Awareness Month. I have written very little about my family and how we cope on a daily basis living with autism.  At this point it really just is what it is because my son with autism is 15 years old so we have pretty much gotten the hang of it.  On the other hand, there are days when the rest of us in the family get frustrated, not with Cody, but with his autism, and how if affects us as a family.  We have humor, though, and that is so key to living with any challenge in life.  We have to laugh.  We must laugh. We do laugh.  My goal is to not only raise awareness, but to share some insights into the day-to-day adventures of how our family lives with autism.  From humor to frustration and everything in between, I am going to share it all (well, most of it) with you in the hopes that you laugh a little, learn a little, maybe even give a little – compassion, that is.
Recently, I was so excited to write the first article for a brand new website dedicated to children, for children.  It’s called A Child Writes and is a safe environment for children to join a community and be paired up with another child as a pen pal.  How cool is that?  Not only that, they are highlighting a cause each month and, of course, they chose autism for April.  I could certainly write more about how excited I am for this site, but you really should just go there and check it out.  Hello! Not yet, though, because I am not done with you yet! 
So, I thought an easy way to start off the month of posts that I plan to write for you would be to use the word autism and create an acronym of sorts as it relates to my life (and maybe the lives of others). 

A – is for again and again and again – because autism and repetition go hand-in-hand.

U – is for unique – because EVERY child is different!

T – is for touching – because some with autism love it and some with autism hate it. Questions? Refer to the letter U. 

I – is for intervention – because the earlier the better.

S – is for siblings – because their needs are often forgotten.

M – is for memory – because my son’s is phenomenal.