Today is World Autism Day
Autism: A brain development disorder which impacts social interaction, often evidenced by repetitive behavior.
A subject much misunderstood by those of us whose families have not been touched by it. I don't pretend to be very knowledgeable on the subject. I do have interest and feel compassion for those facing autism, and I understand that autistic individuals face a myriad of problems going far beyond their basic disorder, because the rest of us do not know how to interact with them. Quite often school officials, unaware of their needs, manage to create further problems.
I would like to suggest possible reading for bloggers. Michelle O'Neil's blog is called Full-Soul-Ahead. She is a marvelous writer, and the mother of an autistic daughter. Read her profile as well as her beautiful post of February 23rd.
Casdok, who lives in Surrey, England, is the mother of a nineteen year old, non-verbal son. Her blog, Mother of Shrek is quite different and interesting.
In your local library, you should find a copy of Send In the Idiots. The author, Nazeer Kamran, is autistic himself. I definitely recommend this book with its amazing stories.
To read the truth about autism, please investigate ASAF, the Autism Society of America.
P.S.
I have just been catching up, and have gone back through other posts by Michelle - each one better than the last, by the way, and found her post on March 26th in which she links us to an HBO website showing Autism: the Musical. Should you find difficulty with that website, marjie's comment to Michelle's blog gave another where you can view the entire movie plus two more.
