As many of you know, Autism affects 1 in 110 children, 1 in 70 boys. That means for every 70 boys in a room, one of them will have autism. It also means, my son would be one of those boys. Many of you know that I am a mother of a 10 year old autistic boy. I've blogged about him before, but today I am blogging about him to help raise awareness of the "Light It Up Blue Campaign".
Emmanuel, my son, has got to the be the happiest little boy I know. He doesn't let his autism stop him from doing anything. Autism affects his comprehension which makes it difficult for him to be in a normal classroom setting. He has to learn at his own pace, but he cannot tell you what he did in school today. You see, autism truly is like a puzzle for him. Image trying to put a puzzle together that has 500 pieces. It can't be done easily. Some would categorize the puzzle pieces by colors or shapes and then try to make them match one another. Can you think of how frustrating that would be and how long it would take. That's how autism affects my son. Learning does not come easy for him. And for us it is a learning lesson. We learn something new about Manny and Autism everyday. Manny's sensitivity level is probably triple the amount of ours, So loud noises can be very irritating for him and even a low steady buzz like the sound of a bumble bee. But at the same time, Manny can tell you everything you need to know about Nascar. From who drives what number car, and who their sponsor is. You can't teach him how to play a game on Wii, you just give him the controls and he learns it automatically. You see, Manny is a visual learner. He'll watch you and figure it out. Telling him is too much instruction and he'll just say "okay, okay, okay". That means, stop wasting your breath, because you're not teaching me correctly.
I'm helping the folks at Autism Speaks spread the work about their new Light it Up Blue Campaign. We'd like you, on April 2nd here's some things you can do to light it up blue:
- Wear your Autism Speaks puzzle piece pin every day throughout the month of April, and tell people about autism if they ask about it.
- Change your Facebook profile picture to the Light It Up Blue logo and tag at least 10 of your friends. (just copy the picture above).
- Post on your blog about how you are “lighting it up blue” to raise autism awareness. Blog about your child or someone you know who lives with autism
- Add the Light It Up Blue logo to your e-mail signature … and type your e-mails in blue!
- On April 2 wear blue clothing and ask your co-workers, schools and friends to wear blue too. Take pictures and add them to our Flickr gallery.
- Bake puzzle piece shaped cookies and frost them with blue icing, then bring them to your school, work or place of worship to raise autism awareness.
WEBSITE INFO
To learn more about the Light It up Blue Campaign we invite you to visit their website at
http://www. lightitupblue.org . To learn more about Autisum go to the Autism Speaks website at http://www.autismspeaks.org.
WHERE YOU CAN HEAR US
My Girl, Christie Crowder from the Chatterbox Radio Show has asked me to be a guest on her show on April 2nd. We will also be joined by a representative from Autism Speaks.org. So be sure to tell your followers to come into the chat room and if they have a child who is autistic be sure to call in and share their expericences. Here's the link .http://www.blogtalkradio.com/chatterboxradio
TWEET ABOUT IT
When tweeting on April 2nd be sure to use the #autismspeaks hashtag and if you'd like to add a twibbon to your twitter and FB page. Just go right here.
I'd like to Thank each and every one of you who are participating in raising awareness with this campaign.
Angela Cooper
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