Well we’ve made it nearly through all of April and this year I was pleasantly surprised that I was not sent every link under the moon about cures for Autism, how bad it is or the new trendy therapy. Perhaps the Neurodiversity movement is finally making an impression! This month, in honor of National Autism Awareness month, I read look me in the eye, my life with asperger’s by John Elder Robinson. This is the brother of Augusten Burroughs, author of Running With Scissors (another good read). If you want to find out what Autism spectrum disorders are like for someone who has lived it, check out Robinson’s book.

Now to put in my PSA for this month I’m giving you my list of common misconceptions about what it means to be pro-acceptance (neurodiversity) vs pro-cure. As a parent of a child with Autism I think this is an important message.

There is a huge misconception of what Autism Acceptance (aka: Pro-Autism) means and what our motivation is that makes us, as parents, choose to accept instead of cure our children. I’d also like to discuss some of the Autism myths, feel free to add your own.

Misconception #1: There are no Autistic Adults. Also: Autistic Adults can’t be loving, or have families.

The truth: There are several Autistic adults with families all around you. They are loving and have the same type of “family life” that other families have. Autistic adults also have jobs and thrive at those jobs bringing diversity and unique skills into the workforce and our society.
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As many already know I am a mom of 3 children. Our middle child also has Autism. I’ve learned a LOT about Autism, Sensory Integration and all things related! I’m also a preschool teacher.

Working with my own children and also preschool children for years has given me a lot of ideas that I just HAD to implement or create and some I’d like to share with my blog readers. I’ve let the other site I had a lot of this hosted on fade out because it became too much work to keep several personal websites updated. I’m moving some of the favorites here so that others can still enjoy it. I get lots of messages and emails asking me when I’m “bringing xyz back again”. I also have a lot of resources for babywearing families and businesses as well that I’ll be moving here too.

So.. here it is!

Many kids with Autism like visual cue cards and reminders, I know mine sure does! I made up a couple sets for use in areas that we were struggling with. These made transitions easier for our whole family!

As a preschool teacher, I find the ones that deal with winter dress can be beneficial to all kids as well! Each child is meant to be gender neutral and I’ve included both light and dark color skin tones. I should also add a warning that my illustrated child, whom I call the “Velcro Kid”, sports a cape in almost everything he does. Its a very “I can do it” attitude I like to portray, he’s “super”. I just have a hard time picturing him without his little cape. So I apologize in advance if, after using these images, your child decides he/she must wear a cape as well.

Click the image to download a zip file containing the large images ready for print. Please do not redistribute these images. Thankyou and enjoy! Read More…