Event
Thursday, January 24th 7pm – meeting @ 6570 Park Drive (church)
By: Bart Thomas
I didn’t know what to think with everyone telling us, ‘things will get better, she’ll grow out of it.’ I wanted to have a positive outlook, but the curious and innocent symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder in my sweet little girl disturbed my confidence in ‘letting it be.’ My girl was only two years old when my wife and I began to clue in that her staring-off, disconnected silence was a warning to ‘get help fast.’ Hearing tests, blood tests, speech-pathologists and pediatricians were all but the beginning of the journey with Autism.
It doesn’t sound convincing does it? Not enough facts, not enough symptoms, not enough awareness to determine a cause… yet that’s just what it’s like parenting a child ‘on the spectrum.’ You have to make choices few people really understand and advocate for your child’s future when it doesn’t appear to be in jeopardy. If you don’t, you may be passing up a chance in a lifetime to make a real difference.
Living with Autism is like being haunted by a ghost. People will sit and argue for hours about whether or not it exists, but only a few realize you’re locked in the house with no way to ignore the evidence. It’s like something is happening, or something has happened and possibly some things may never happen for children ‘on the spectrum’. And you only have six years to figure it out (birth to six years old) before your autism funding is shaved down to nearly a quarter. Whether you’ve diagnosed it in their first year or their fifth year, your progress on changing your child’s future is dramatically reduced on the sixth birthday. That is of course, if you managed to prove to yourself, your doctor and to the federal government that your child’s symptoms are a good fit for the vague parameters and haunting appearances of Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Next comes the campaign. At some of the training conferences we attended (Autism Community Training) we were given ‘business cards’ to hand out to teachers, child workers and neighbors to help raise understanding and tolerance for unconventional social behaviors at school and throughout the community. As helpful as the descriptions were, no explanation could ease the loneliness and tremendous responsibility felt by parents learning to fight a problem many doubt even exists. If my little girl didn’t misbehave in class she was thought to be adapting well to the social and academic demands of elementary school. You can imagine how shocking it was when we found out she was functioning several grades lower than her peers at school. It made me wonder how much lonelier she felt in an environment she didn’t understand, surrounded by children and adults who did. That’s when I decided to give my little girl a cell phone. Now I’m so glad I did. Her phone calls from the bathroom confirm what I’ve known all along – she feels just as lost and alone as we do. And she doesn’t know how to make it go away.
On Thursday, January 24th I’ll be attending a new community group entitled, “Oliver Autism Support.” If you can relate to some of the insightful experiences I’ve described or have a few of your own, or think you could be starting out… come out and join the discussion.