Today is World Autism Awareness Day ...
... and April is Autism Awareness Month. As most/all of you should know by now, my four-year-old son Drayke was diagnosed as autistic in December of 2007. Anyone who has met him/spoken with him can state that while he is indeed quirky and a bit strange sometimes (though I prefer the term 'marvelously weird'), he is also one of the most loving, caring, intelligent children the world could ever care to meet. I consider myself utterly blissed out and blessed to have a child who experiences the world just a little differently than the rest of us, because it constantly reminds my wife and I (as well as his little brother Landon) how much fun and wonder there will always be in the world, no matter who a person is or how many years they've been around.
Wife got a rad idea to make some homemade Autism Awareness pins for the month to help spread the word and, hopefully, get people interested in learning more about the very diverse condition tabbed as autism, as well as neighboring conditions such as Asperger's Syndrome. CNN is running autism-themed programming for a full 24 hours today in honor of World Autism Awareness Day, and I've found a good amount of stories about families learning how to best handle diagnoses of autism pervading the media in the past week or so.
Anyways, we had some issues with glue not holding well last night, so we've gotta get a hot glue gun today to finish the rest of the batch - but here's the pin my wife made for me last night:
As always, click on the pic for a bigger image. The piece represents the 'puzzling' nature of autism, as not much is known about causes of the condition - also, while some cases of autism are similar, it would be above and beyond rare for cases to be identical, making those who are autistic similar to puzzle pieces in that respect. The bright colors (we made red, yellow, blue and green pieces) represent the bright nature and charisma that individuals with autism show - and man alive, that's certainly the case with Drayke.
Well, if you read this, thanks a lot! This afternoon I'll try to drop some links about where to look for information on autism/Asperger's, etc - for now, though, I've got work to do. Toodles, all!
Wife got a rad idea to make some homemade Autism Awareness pins for the month to help spread the word and, hopefully, get people interested in learning more about the very diverse condition tabbed as autism, as well as neighboring conditions such as Asperger's Syndrome. CNN is running autism-themed programming for a full 24 hours today in honor of World Autism Awareness Day, and I've found a good amount of stories about families learning how to best handle diagnoses of autism pervading the media in the past week or so.
Anyways, we had some issues with glue not holding well last night, so we've gotta get a hot glue gun today to finish the rest of the batch - but here's the pin my wife made for me last night:
As always, click on the pic for a bigger image. The piece represents the 'puzzling' nature of autism, as not much is known about causes of the condition - also, while some cases of autism are similar, it would be above and beyond rare for cases to be identical, making those who are autistic similar to puzzle pieces in that respect. The bright colors (we made red, yellow, blue and green pieces) represent the bright nature and charisma that individuals with autism show - and man alive, that's certainly the case with Drayke.
Well, if you read this, thanks a lot! This afternoon I'll try to drop some links about where to look for information on autism/Asperger's, etc - for now, though, I've got work to do. Toodles, all!