World Autism Day

Today, 2nd of April, is World Autism Day.  Where we all put in our part to promote Autism Awareness.  For me it is a day I celebrate the little things that we as parents take for granted.  Try to push the meltdowns and the problems with school to the back of my mind and take note of the little things that I treasure with my Autism Angel.  The fact that every night when I tuck him into bed he jumps back out of bed to give me a kiss and a hug, the "I love you" I get from him all the time.  He is a gorgeous little boy who lives with Autism. 

Our stats still stand at 1 in 110 kids are diagnosed with Autism where the new stats from the USA is 1 in 88.  So what exactly is it.  So many of you read my blog but do you all know exactly what it is?  This is going to be MY way of promoting Autism Awareness.  For starters every single child with Autism is different (I am sure if they were all the same it would make it somewhat easier on us parents lol).  They do not look any different to any other child you may meet in the street and there is a possibility that you might not even know that they live with it.  One other thing you cannot catch it it is not a disease.

Wikipedia defines Autism as:-
"Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior.  Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their synapses connect and organize; how this occurs is not well understood."

Basically kids with Autism can have, sensory, communication and social interaction problems which can affect them and we don't know why it happens.

There are three classifications of the Autistic Spectrum that people (I say people because in rare cases adults can be diagnosed with Autism as well however normally picked up in childhood) and these are

• Autistic Disorder
• Asperger Syndrome
• Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (commonly abbreviated as PDD-NOS), which is diagnosed when the full set of criteria for autism or Asperger syndrome are not met.

All in all I just say to people that Callum has Autism when in fact he has Autistic Disorder.  When he was diagnosed he barely spoke at all, especially nowhere near the level he was meant to for his age, hence this diagnosis.  If he had been speaking at a level for his age, then there would have been a higher chance of his diagnosis being Asperger Syndrome.  

So what makes Callum have Autistic Disorder? 
When Callum was younger he started showing a lot of repetitive behaviour.  Things like lining up his cars or toys, having to have the same colour cup or plate or bowl, sitting in the same spot every time he sat at the table.  We kind of thought ohh yeah that must be just some kind of little quirk that he has.  It wasn't until he had grommets/tubes put in his ears that we really started to notice the sensory issues relating to noise that he had.  He couldn't hear much before so noise didn't bother him.  We took him to a Wiggles concert at the age of 4....... we haven't done it again lol.  Other things like when he eats spaghetti bolognaise he will only eat the pasta with grated cheese as he doesn't like the texture of the meat and sauce in his mouth. 
Everything is literal.  When he was sleeping on a mattress on the floor (he had a meltdown and broke his bed and was unrepairable)  I would tell him to go to bed and he would then inform me that he doesn't have a bed.  When he would ask me where I was going I used to say as a joke I was going to the moon.... I don't do that anymore only to his sister hahaha. 

They are funny little quirky things that I absolutely love about this kid and it makes me smile.  He can transform one of those $100 Bumblebee Transformers that us as adults need the instructions for and still can't get it.  Some of the things he can do is just mind blowing.  Trust me though I am certainly not saying that having a child with Autism is all rainbows and daisies.  It is hard work.

So today I take my hat off to every parent who has a child with Autism.  If I could give each and every single one of you a medal I would (or a glass of wine whichever works lol).