My Family's Experience with Autism: Tooting my own horn

Friday, April 8, 2011

Tooting my own horn

I am still on a bit of an emotional high. As many of you may be aware, the April edition of Parents magazine did not contain any publicity about Autism and Autism Awareness Month. Many individuals in the autism community were outraged and began to bombard the magazine with letters and emails. They heard us. They are dedicating a portion of their "GoodyBlog" in a section called "Voices of Autism" to families stories about autism every day in April. I wish it was more, but at least there is now SOMETHING.

They asked families to provide the magazine with specific information. I saw this, thanks to another blog that I follow, and submitted my family's story. And, on Wednesday, I received an email from the magazine. They have decided to include my story. It will be "published" on Tuesday, April 12. From what I understand, they are still requesting stories from families. If you see this, please go to Parents Magazine's GoodyBlog and the specific information they request is listed and feel free to submit your story.

Also, last night, I received an email from the administrator of another blog I follow (Multiples and More). I wrote a guest post for them last year during Autism Awareness Month and I asked if they would be interested in me doing the same thing again this year. She thought that would be a good idea and I wrote a post. That is going to be published tomorrow (Saturday).

Can you see I'm excited? And can you blame me? This is how I spread the word. This is how I honor Autism Awareness Month. This is my contribution.

2 comments:

Alysia - Try Defying GravityApril 8, 2011 at 1:17 PM
that's terrific! So glad you sent your story in. Can't wait to read them both!
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debi9kidsApril 9, 2011 at 12:24 PM
Just read your post over at M&M and have added you to my blogroll. Always nice to meet another twin mama with autism in the house.
It's so strange ow many of us with twins the same age are dealing with autism and makes me wonder if there are any studies being done to look into this.
Well done bringing awareness!
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A Little Bit About Me and My Family

Every once in a while, something happens to a family that seems to change everything, whether that change is positive, negative, or in an uncertain direction. One such thing happened to us in March 2009, when we were informed our 26 month old twins (girl/boy) were BOTH on the autism spectrum. Their older brother (nearly 4 at the time) had always been ahead of the curve for most developmental milestones, so we had never really considered that some of the delays the twins were having had anything to do with autism. Well, we were wrong. Since then we have been learning about learning techniques and doing everything we can to make sure they get any and all help they need so that they can live normal lives. This blog chronicles that journey.

The Autism Pizza

I don't know where this came from originally, but I found it on a post on Circle of Moms. It's a good explanation of how things line up on the spectrum.

1. The Crust: Lack of Social Interaction (poor eye contact, not sharing interests with you, no pointing/gesturing)

2. The Sauce: Impaired Communication (possibly no speech, poor conversation skills, repetitive language, echolalia, no make-believe play)

3. The Cheese: Stereotypical Activities & Interests (extreme routine, strong interest in certain things, stimming [flapping, atypical play, etc.] -- like spinning wheels, lining toys up, stacking, etc.)

If you have all of those things: crust, sauce, cheese, you made an Autism pizza. It might have different toppings, but you can look at it and know it's still a pizza. If your pizza doesn't have sauce, that's Aspergers's. If your pizza is missing more than that but still kind of looks like a pizza, that's PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified)