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Happy World Autism Awareness Day!

I’ve written about autism. Many. Many. Many times. It’s part of my everyday life.

With 1 in every 110 children now being diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, there’s a good chance that autism is part of your life, too – or that you at least know someone (me?) who is affected.

So how does one celebrate such a day? (Or an entire month, for that matter, since April is Autism Awareness Month.)

Well, if you’ve got a kid on the spectrum, the first thing to do is hug him (or her, but it’s four times more likely to be a him) and remind yourself how lucky you are to have this little (or big) person in your life. (This same process can be followed with typical kids even though it’s not Neurotypical Awareness Day.)

Next, you might want to consider donating to Autism Speaks or another autism-related cause. Your money could go to the brilliant scientists who are going to figure out why our kids’ brains are different and then find a cure. Or, maybe it will go toward making it illegal for insurance companies to discriminate against our kids. There are lots of other worthy efforts around autism that also need funding, but those are the two biggies at the moment.

And, my final recommendation on celebrating World Autism Awareness Day and Autism Awareness Month: Educate yourself and others. Understanding is the key to progress here.

Acceptance is a good start - all of our kids (and we, as their parents) deserve to be treated fairly. But the importance of cultivating understanding goes deeper than acceptance. If everyone understood the disorder better, we could have more support for people on the spectrum, more people working on treatments, and more people funding the research that will ultimately lead to its cause and its cure. It can start with you.

Just in case you need a cheat sheet, here are a few key points you might want to share:

• Autism is a neurological disorder that affects every person differently. It’s called a spectrum disorder because of the wide variance in symptoms and severity among affected individuals.

• More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes and cancer combined.

• No one knows what causes autism and there is no proven link between autism and vaccines.

• Children with autism have trouble relating to other people. This can mean everything from being socially awkward to being unable to speak.

• Even though there is no cure for autism, early intervention with individualized therapies has been proven to treat the symptoms of the disorder, helping kids gain many of the skills they need to learn and become functional adults. Some parents would go so far as to say that their children have actually "recovered" from the disorder. For the majority of people with autism, however, it's something they will deal with their entire lives.

That's really just the beginning, but I hope that it gets you (or someone you know) thinking and interested in learning more. In addition to the Autism Speaks site, which has tons of good information, I recommend the book " Ten Things Every Child With Autism Wishes You Knew." I have other recommendations too, but I'll save some of them to last me through the month.

It's World Autism Awareness Day

Today is World Autism Awareness Day. What can you do to help spread awareness?

Here in the Twin Cities, families are rallying at the Capitol in support of several autism-related bills, including insurance reform and a bill that would establish a task force to limit the use of seclusion and restraints in the public school system - a practice I've mentioned before that scares the hell out of me. 

Sadly, I will not be attending any rallies today. Instead, I will be driving down to Viroqua, Wisc. with my mother, to say goodbye to my estranged grandmother, who just had a stroke, and begin the terrifying process of cleaning out her house...where she's lived alone for 15 years...collecting stray animals. I am shuddering at the thought. 

I will be back tomorrow and it would be such a nice surprise to find out that, in my absence, Team Owen met its goal. You can help! Thanks to everyone who has already donated - it's not too late for the rest of you. Don't make me pull out that Alicia Keys video again...wow, that thing made me cry.

Happy World Autism Awareness Day, everyone. Let's all try to help just one person learn one thing about autism today. For more information, visit Autism Speaks. 

Autism Awareness Month: Team Owen Returns

Happy Autism Awareness Month! 

Since it's day one, let's start with a basic definition of autism: 

Autism is a neurological disorder characterized by impaired social and communication skills. 

Often, people use the term "autism" when they are actually referring to "Autism Spectrum Disorder" (or ASD), a term that includes three neurological disorders: Asperger's syndrome, Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). Autism is the core disorder on the spectrum, but the severity with which a person is affected by all of these disorders varies widely (thus, the term "spectrum"). If you want to read a more extensive definition, check out the Autism Society of America site. 

Alright, so what better way to kick off this month - and prepare for World Autism Awareness Day tomorrow - than to tell you about the triumphant return of Team Owen!

You might remember that last April, Team Owen raised a lot of money for Autism Speaks through the virtual Walk Now for Autism event. Well, we're back! This year, the walk has been branded by the good people at Nickelodeon and is therefore known as "Walk with Wubzy on the Web." (For those unfamiliar, "Wow! Wow! Wubzy!" is a show on Nick, Jr.) 

In celebration of World Autism Awareness Day, Team Owen is collecting online donations that will go to Autism Speaks. Our goal is to reach $500 by the end of day tomorrow. You can help us by visiting our team page and donating now. Either click "General Team Donation" or choose one of our names and donate on our page. Or, if you're feeling really ambitious, join our team and start soliciting donations yourself! 

We support Autism Speaks because they support autism advocacy, awareness, treatment and research. We want to find out what caused Owen's autism. We want to learn more about how to help him. We hope that someday there will be a cure. Until then, we will focus on raising awareness and finding ways to help him reach his potential in a world full of policies and processes created by people whose brains work differently than his. 

Giving money is a personal decision, so I'm not going to try to guilt you into it. Just know that your donation makes a difference. Not just to us, but to the millions of people who have autism or love someone who does. It matters.

I should also add that if just 19 of you give $25, we will meet our goal. That feels reasonable. 

Whether you give money or simply take the time to learn more about autism this month, you have my thanks in advance. We can make this world a better place for Owen and every child with autism. 

Visit Team Owen at: http://www.walknowforautism.org/waadwalk/teamowen

More Than Words

I wish I had composed something as beautiful as today's Autismville blog in honor of World Autism Awareness Day, but alas, I did not. 

I could comment on Jenny McCarthy's editorial on CNN.com about her son's "recovery" from autism...I could say what a disservice I think she's doing for her son and for parents of children with autism everywhere, but, well, I think today should be about more positive things. 

So in lieu of beauty, let's have reality. In reality, I got what I think is pretty good news today. I met with the private speech therapist that evaluated Owen last week. Extra speech therapy had been recommended at one point more than a year ago and I only now followed up on it since we just got real medical insurance that actually covers things. 

The therapist showed me his test scores and they were all well above average -- so high that she's not recommending therapy. In fact, she showed me where his scores would have to be for him to qualify for speech therapy by the school district's standards and I am now armed with several new questions for our IEP meeting next week.

She said that because he is so intelligent, he's probably thinking faster than he can articulate, which is why he sometimes reverses words and why sometimes it's hard to figure out what he's trying to tell you (we can understand his words, but sometimes they don't make sense). She went on to say what a joy he was, adding, "It's so nice to see a kid who can actually TALK." A no-no for a speech therapist, I'm sure, but funny nonetheless. 

So hooray for Owen! For once, he's in the 82nd percentile for something other than the size of his noggin. That's worth celebrating, I think.

Better Than Expected

You guys are awesome! I haven't quite deciphered how Autism Speaks actually calculates the total donations raised for a team (I can't get the numbers to add up -- if you know anything about this, leave me a comment), but according to Team Owen's page... 

WE'VE EXCEEDED OUR GOAL! And we did it in 24 hours!

It's really heartwarming to know how many people care about Owen and about supporting this cause. And as a person who isn't always great about asking for help, it's incredible to see how quickly and generously people respond when asked.

What I'm trying to say is THANK YOU. It means a lot.

For those of you still wanting to donate, please do! Visit the Team Owen page and join our team, pledge one of our members, or start a team of you own.

Be the Change

In case you haven't heard, April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day. That means you'll be be hearing a lot about autism in the next few days -- and hopefully weeks, as technically the entire month of April is Autism Awareness Month.

Here's the deal: 1 in every 150 children has an autism spectrum disorder. There is no cure, but treatment has been shown to help. 

If you aren't personally affected by autism, I'd like you to imagine the following: You've been told that your precious child has a brain disorder. You've been told that it affects every person differently. And you've been told that it's lifelong. Then you're told that no one knows what causes it. 

Autism is estimated to affect 35 million people worldwide and we have no idea what causes it. We need answers. To get those answers, we need more funding for research. Here's where you come in. 

Autism Speaks is raising awareness and money for autism research with its "Walk Now for Autism Virtual Walk." It's all the fundraising without all the pesky walking. In honor of my little genius who happens to also have autism, I have started my own team, appropriately named "Team Owen," and I'm hoping we can raise $1000. It's not much, but it's something. You can join my team or start your own. 

Please pass this on to anyone else you know that can help. Even if they don't give, at least you'll be helping to raise awareness. And as my autism mama hero Judith says on her blog, Autismville: "Awareness brings understanding. Understanding fosters change."

These kids can't raise the money themselves, people. Let's go.