I remember meeting him for the first time, so full of energy and life. He ran around the house without a care in the world. His mother running after him at lightning speed grabbing his arm and maneuvering him back into arms reach of her. I simply thought she was being an over protective parent, and him a free spirited child. After many hours of this pattern happening the word autistic was thrown out and that’s when it hit, my little cousin, this fun, caring and sweet little boy was autistic.

According to the CDC (center for diseases control and Prevention)

• About 1 in 68 children has been identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) according to estimates from CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network.

• ASD is reported to occur in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups.

• ASD is almost 5 times more common among boys (1 in 42) than among girls (1 in 189).

• Studies in Asia, Europe, and North America have identified individuals with ASD with an average prevalence of about 1%. A study in South Korea reported a prevalence of 2.6%.

• About 1 in 6 children in the United States had a developmental disability in 2006-2008, ranging from mild disabilities such as speech and language impairments to serious developmental disabilities, such as intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, and autism.

Autism is generally defined as a mental condition in which a child has difficulties communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract ideas.  The purpose of this project was not only to understand the ways in which teachers and grassroots organizations help with the development of children with autism, but to also understand the emotions, both good and bad, that comes with teaching, living and caring for children with autism.

Around the site there will be several pictures with puzzles pieces in the shape of a ribbon. The image was adopted to represent Autism awareness. Each puzzle piece is an individual that works as a whole, just like individuals with autism. Everybody’s experience with autism is different and that what makes them special.

When scrolling through this site, there is a lot happening. I did this in many ways purposely to simulate how knowledge and information can be hard to process especially when you have autism. However, it is still important that you, the reader, understand how to negotiate this site. Across the top of the site, there is a handy tool bar with several topics, and if you scroll across those topics, for many of them, a drop down menu will appear showing sub topics. If you click on the topic shown in the tool bar, it will give you a general understanding of that topic and the sub categories that accompany that topic. For example if you click on the “about” tab you will be bought to this page which will provide you with a general understanding of my topic. However if you scroll over the about page on the side bar, it will display a drop down menu with “the spectrum “underneath. If you click on it, you will be bought to another page with information on the autism spectrum. There may be links that take you from one place to another, links to websites, many pictures, videos, colors, etc. I urge you that when things get to overwhelming to take  a deep breath, relax and re-focus. Sometimes in order to understand something you must live it, and that many times is the most challenging part.