Living with Autism!

Arek has just finished his first week back in school. It is a strange mixture of feelings of sadness and happiness when our children go back to school. We miss the daily treasures of being around them like the random babbling  and spurts of uncontrollable laughter. It is so wonderful to see the absolute amusement and joy in Arek’s eyes when he sees the bus coming down the street. The first day of school it was almost an hour before we got him dressed and after much protest, when that bus pulled up the smile and words ” go to school” were worth it.  Now every morning Arek just smiles and says “cereal” and ” need clothes” followed by “go to school”. Coming home from school he says “goodbye” to the bus. there was a time living with Autism not so long ago when we did not think we would hear Arek speak at all. Now he speaks enough that we are able to at least make out what he wants most of the time. This year Arek is in pull ups as he hasn’t completely graduated to potty trained status. he will go number 1 most times on the potty but number 2 just for some reason scares him. Hopefully between school and home we can conquer the number 2 and he can graduate to potty trained. His teacher says he is a pleasure to work with and we are looking forward to watching him progress throughout the year. We will keep you posted.

The national Autism Association finished a campaign asking a simple question How much longer until autism gets the attention it deserves. The president in his speech on health care mentioned the H1N1 or swine flu as an epidemic. He failed to address the Autism epidemic which has been years in the making and seems to be increasing in severity.  According to a recent survey by the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), with support by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Autism Spectrum Disorders now affect 1 in 100 children. The campaign sent out 8 different ads have circulated over the past 6 weeks. This campaign was not like most , the campaign was rather rebellious and harsh at times. They actually call out the National Institutes of health for not focusing more funding toward environmental causes of autism. The campaign calls out the Dept. of Education for their slow response to the abuse and even death of special education students in our schools. This campaign is over now but it is never to late to contact your congressmen. The campaign sent out over 50, 000 letters to President Barrack Obama and others by September 9th.