Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Autism explained by 10-year-old Noah Xavier
Guest Writer: Noah Xavier Smits, age 10, Asperger's Syndrome
What is Autism?
by Noah X. Smits
There is a certain combination of characteristics that make up a puzzle, with each autism trait a piece to it. Everybody is missing pieces to this puzzle. This puzzle is autism, and people diagnosed with autism have more pieces than "normal" people. But "normal" people still have some.
The word "autistic" is actually a ranking. This is given to the people who have many pieces to the puzzle. "Normal" people have very few pieces.
The puzzle is a part of your DNA. It works to characterize you. The number of pieces you have is partly what makes you you.
Autism is really publicly known as a disease you get that makes you stupid. It is really what makes up each puzzle piece. Everyone has autism in different amounts.
Nobody has all the puzzle pieces -- if they did, they would be a baseline for autism. Each puzzle piece is one characteristic of autism.
You get to decide if autism is an advantage or a disadvantage. You pick if it's good or bad.
Never mock an autistic person -- remember, you are autistic too. Everyone is.
Autism is such a large category that it includes many different people, from geniuses to people with trouble speaking, from flight attendants to football players, from me to you.
The word "autistic" shouldn't exist because we are all autistic. We're not all the same, but we still have some pieces to the same puzzle:
What is Autism?
by Noah X. Smits
There is a certain combination of characteristics that make up a puzzle, with each autism trait a piece to it. Everybody is missing pieces to this puzzle. This puzzle is autism, and people diagnosed with autism have more pieces than "normal" people. But "normal" people still have some.
The word "autistic" is actually a ranking. This is given to the people who have many pieces to the puzzle. "Normal" people have very few pieces.
The puzzle is a part of your DNA. It works to characterize you. The number of pieces you have is partly what makes you you.
Autism is really publicly known as a disease you get that makes you stupid. It is really what makes up each puzzle piece. Everyone has autism in different amounts.
Nobody has all the puzzle pieces -- if they did, they would be a baseline for autism. Each puzzle piece is one characteristic of autism.
You get to decide if autism is an advantage or a disadvantage. You pick if it's good or bad.
Never mock an autistic person -- remember, you are autistic too. Everyone is.
Autism is such a large category that it includes many different people, from geniuses to people with trouble speaking, from flight attendants to football players, from me to you.
The word "autistic" shouldn't exist because we are all autistic. We're not all the same, but we still have some pieces to the same puzzle:
The puzzle of autism.
Happy 2009, finally!I read this article today about a recent study that shows (again) that MMR vaccines do NOT cause autism. People ask me all the time what I think about the cause(s) of autism. It's the number one question I get when I tell people my boys are on the spectrum. But I don't have much to say on that subject.
I don't think too much about the causes of autism because I personally don't find it helpful. Instead, my "cause" is to know my own children and help them live in a world they don't easily fit into. For a while I couldn't decide which bandwagon to jump on when every cause seems so urgent and important. But I live with my children. I live with my particular family. I know my children's particular struggles.
That's why I am an advocate for Autism and Asperger's Acceptance. It's not that I WANT to accept autism; it's that I HAVE to. I have these two boys - these spunky, interesting, unique boys - and they need to be accepted. Their entire life may be filled with roadblocks, but I can teach them how to drive around them. People might always find them odd, but I can encourage them to feel secure in who God made them. Noah Xavier and Cameron might always be bothered by certain noises and stimuli, but I can help them cope.
How do YOU feel about acceptance of ASD? Is acceptance another word for "giving up?" Or is it actually a type of freedom? Feel free to leave comments! Please, let's not debate immunizations here. I'm sure there's somewhere else to do that. Thanks!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Plans and Expectations while Pregnant with a Child with Autism
Happy Friday, friends! Today here in Wisconsin we were dumped on (again) by Jack Frost and his team. Good thing for my boys, who were thrilled when school was cancelled. Not as good for mom, since her plans for the day got scrapped. But that gets me thinking. How often do our plans actually turn out the way we want them to?
How often does our day fall into place, just as we scripted, exactly how we hoped? And if that uncertainty applies to one day, doesn't it also mean our weeks are uncertain? Our months? Or years? How about our lives?
When I was young, like many young girls I dreamed of having children one day. I collected Flower Girl dolls -- which were a cheaper knockoff of the coveted Cabbage Patch Kid dolls! I saved my own money to buy them and named them, taking care of them as if they were real. I was 11 or 12 at my peak of interest in dolls. I also loved real babies and did lots of babysitting. I was told I was good with children and knew how to relate to them.
I longed to be a mom. I knew I was too young, but all through high school I fantasized about it and could hardly wait. I imagined my babies -- always girls (LOL) -- snuggling and laughing with me in endless bliss. I imagined I would dress them in adorable outfits, strolling them through malls and parks -- where strangers couldn't help but stop us to say, "How cute!"
That's how I imagined parenthood! I can see now that I put a heavy burden on my future children to bring me joy and attention.
I'm grateful that God had better plans for me, and that my first baby didn't come until I finished college and got married. Almost immediately after our May 1997 wedding, we decided to start trying. It didn't even take a month. My plans were falling right into place!
I wrote a journal during this first pregnancy. When I read through it now, I notice an underlying theme of "me, me, me." The pregnancy was all about me, and I dreamed of how a baby would enhance my life. But pregnancy also opened up a spiritual window for me: I started praying again after having been "agnostic" for years. I knew something miraculous had happened to me when I got pregnant. There wasn't a child, and then there was!
So although this new-found faith was a positive thing, I placed my little miracle baby up on a pedestal. My expectations for motherhood were even greater now -- if just being pregnant could change me so much, imagine when the baby is born!
From my pregnancy journal: "I am a mommy now. I'm somebody's mommy. There is a person growing inside me who didn't exist 100 days ago. I have a child, and from the moment we conceived this child, I became so much more important than I ever was before. We are bonded forever."
I became consumed with pregnancy and delivery, devouring books and journaling obsessively. Instead of Lamaze, Todd and I took a class called The Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth. I didn't think too much about being a mother; I "knew" that would just come naturally.
Four months into the pregnancy, I had a little scare with cramps and spotting. When I went to the clinic, they did an ultrasound and the baby looked fine. Todd and I were thrilled to see our real, little person (who had his legs crossed so we didn't know he was a boy)!
In my journal I wrote: "I'm so grateful that nothing was wrong with our baby. This baby has already brought so much happiness to our life -- and we can't wait to meet Noah or Jasmine face-to-face."
Expectations. Plans. A vision. A dream.
Please check back tomorrow for Part 2 of my story.
Blessings,
René, The Autism Mom
Follow my blog: http://theautismmom.blogspot.com/
http://www.smitsmarketinggroup.com/
How often does our day fall into place, just as we scripted, exactly how we hoped? And if that uncertainty applies to one day, doesn't it also mean our weeks are uncertain? Our months? Or years? How about our lives?
When I was young, like many young girls I dreamed of having children one day. I collected Flower Girl dolls -- which were a cheaper knockoff of the coveted Cabbage Patch Kid dolls! I saved my own money to buy them and named them, taking care of them as if they were real. I was 11 or 12 at my peak of interest in dolls. I also loved real babies and did lots of babysitting. I was told I was good with children and knew how to relate to them.
I longed to be a mom. I knew I was too young, but all through high school I fantasized about it and could hardly wait. I imagined my babies -- always girls (LOL) -- snuggling and laughing with me in endless bliss. I imagined I would dress them in adorable outfits, strolling them through malls and parks -- where strangers couldn't help but stop us to say, "How cute!"
That's how I imagined parenthood! I can see now that I put a heavy burden on my future children to bring me joy and attention.
I'm grateful that God had better plans for me, and that my first baby didn't come until I finished college and got married. Almost immediately after our May 1997 wedding, we decided to start trying. It didn't even take a month. My plans were falling right into place!
I wrote a journal during this first pregnancy. When I read through it now, I notice an underlying theme of "me, me, me." The pregnancy was all about me, and I dreamed of how a baby would enhance my life. But pregnancy also opened up a spiritual window for me: I started praying again after having been "agnostic" for years. I knew something miraculous had happened to me when I got pregnant. There wasn't a child, and then there was!
So although this new-found faith was a positive thing, I placed my little miracle baby up on a pedestal. My expectations for motherhood were even greater now -- if just being pregnant could change me so much, imagine when the baby is born!
From my pregnancy journal: "I am a mommy now. I'm somebody's mommy. There is a person growing inside me who didn't exist 100 days ago. I have a child, and from the moment we conceived this child, I became so much more important than I ever was before. We are bonded forever."
I became consumed with pregnancy and delivery, devouring books and journaling obsessively. Instead of Lamaze, Todd and I took a class called The Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth. I didn't think too much about being a mother; I "knew" that would just come naturally.
Four months into the pregnancy, I had a little scare with cramps and spotting. When I went to the clinic, they did an ultrasound and the baby looked fine. Todd and I were thrilled to see our real, little person (who had his legs crossed so we didn't know he was a boy)!
In my journal I wrote: "I'm so grateful that nothing was wrong with our baby. This baby has already brought so much happiness to our life -- and we can't wait to meet Noah or Jasmine face-to-face."
Expectations. Plans. A vision. A dream.
Please check back tomorrow for Part 2 of my story.
Blessings,
René, The Autism Mom
Follow my blog: http://theautismmom.blogspot.com/
http://www.smitsmarketinggroup.com/
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