Autism Acceptance

I started this blog a few years ago, with the expectation that I would write something positive, educational, or heart-warming every month. I have failed my original goal. Lately, the negative aspects have overshadowed the beautiful moments. I felt guilty about writing negative thoughts, so I did not post my blog entries.

April was a magical month for me. Two special events occurred that opened my eyes to the beauty of autism, and helped me embrace it once again. Six fourth and fifth grade girls joined me in a book discussion group at the local school. We read Rules by Cynthia Lord, and The Reinvention of Edison Thomas by Jacqueline Houtman. Both novels have a character with autism. The discussions with these girls gave me new hope that we are not only on a road to more awareness of autism, but we are paving a path for acceptance as well.

Last week, I also had an opportunity to do an autism presentation to seven elementary classrooms in our home town. My "neurotypical", ten-year-old daughter joined me for two of the presentations. Hannah read a book about a boy with autism, "Ian's Walk", and afterwards I asked the children to identify the similarities and differences between Ian and themselves. The differences were easy to identify. "Ian likes to watch the fan instead of people." "Ian doesn't like baseball or stories, but I do." "Ian would rather smell bricks than smell flowers." The younger students, however, were quicker to point out the similarities. The third and fifth grade students had difficulty with this.

Interesting.

Those Kindergarten and First grade students quickly stated that Ian is a "person" and he has "feelings". We talked about how to be a friend to someone like Ian, and how Ian would feel if he had no one to play with. Easy. I taught awareness of autism, but I did not need to teach acceptance, because the children were too young to have learned discrimination. Acceptance came naturally to them.

The older elementary students needed to really think hard to come up with ways in which the autistic character in the book was similar to themselves.  I concluded that prejudice and discrimination must develop sometime between second and fifth grade. I believe it is partly developmental, but also environmental. Prejudice and discrimination are learned behaviors. I now realize that educating these students needs to occur before third grade. Refreshing them with awareness discussions on a yearly basis is also necessary.

While attending the state Autism Society Conference a few days ago, I bought a new book. "All About My Brother" is written by a nine-year-old girl who has a brother with autism. At the end of the book, there are three pages that enable the reader to write his/her own stories and experiences with autism. Hannah is already thinking about what she is going to add to the book, and she is also talking about going into more classrooms and speaking every year about autism awareness. I do believe she and I will make a great team!!