A mother’s wish for Autism Awareness Day 2020
By Lucy Watts, 02 Apr 2020
This autism awareness day, there is something I would love if you would consider doing for me, a mum to a little boy with Autism.
Can you please join in and celebrate being different, include your children and loved ones in celebrating autism awareness.
Can you please acknowledge that not all disabilities can be seen. Would you please consider telling your children a little about people like my boy Rory?
Something like this could make a huge impact to how people understand Autism and it’s really easy to do, all you need to do – is say it’s ok to talk about disabilities.
A child with Autism may find communicating really difficult, they may talk however they may struggle to put words together correctly or they may not talk at all. My son Rory lost his words around 18 months and they haven’t come back yet. This is very common for children with Autism.
Rory uses a special book called a PODD book which uses pictures to help Rory communicate by pointing to pictures.
We also use some core sign language to help us talk to Rory.
A child with Autism may have repetitive behaviours, they could jump on the spot many times over and over throughout the day, they may spin in circles over and over, they may like to make lots of sounds. Rory likes to make noises like “EEEEEEE” whilst he is jumping.
They may play things differently to how your child does, they may enjoy lining toys up very particularly or burying things in other toys.
These can also be things all kids like to do, however sometimes children with Autism can struggle to regulate their emotions and not being able to talk about why they are sad or worried can lead them to feeling hopeless and scared which may lead to a “meltdown”, its more than a tantrum, it’s a feeling of total helplessness and not having the ability to calm down.
There is so much more to Autism, these are just a few things that you could teach your child and they may hold onto a little bit of this information and some day, they may come across a kid like mine, and rather than ignore or exclude him because they worry about why he is acting differently or why he cannot talk, they may remember and they may just be kind to kid like mine.
The colour recognised for Autism is blue, this April 2nd,
I invite you to wear blue in awareness of Autism.
Autism is beautiful, it’s different and its unique.
Be kind – Lucy Watts
www.lucywattslifeandautism.com
www.instagram.com/lucywattslifeandautism/
