"World Autism Awareness Day" - qualityg style

April 2, 2008

Today first World Autism Awareness Day. It is a special day to honor to the bravery of the individuals with autism and their families.

Today I wore my favorite autism shirt to school. I often feel more people should live outside the box and take lessons from our special children.

Interestingly at school today no one was aware of Autism Day. Eight students commented to me after reading the shirt that they had a brother, cousin, sister or uncle with autism. None had a clear understanding of what it meant, one student thought his cousin was "Dyslexic" because he could not read.

I was disappointed that none of the Special Education teachers, aids or administrators was
aware of Autism Day. I know that it is the first one but if special education people are to truly understand this disability and want to make a difference in how they are educated they should already be well read and interested on what is in some cases and will be the most time consuming in the near future.

I walked the hall with one of my high school autistic students today. He looked at my shirt but was much more interested in the latest “Reaper” episode on TV last night. It was our way of staying connected and just having a friendly conversation. As he turned down the hall to his science class and I was heading to my car to drive to the middle school I could still hear him talking about the episode and I just smiled and said Happy Autism Awareness Day Kevin.

My dogs Maggie and Angie also want to wish everyone a good autism awareness day.

To read my on-going posts on Autism and mainstreaming please click on the Label on the side panel or below this post and all of the will appear for your reading.

Please continue to view the many shows and people on TV that talk about autism. Read articles and books to educate yourself to the symptoms and characteristic, the numbers are alarming and it may hit you or a loved one at anytime.

In the last four years I have read over 50 books on this subject. I learn something new in each one and the ones I learn the most from are the books written by parents and the trials, tribulations and exceptional heart warming moments.