Autism - What are the top three things you want people to know aboutautism?

1. Having autism does not mean that a person is stupid or dumb or "retarded." Many autistics are actually quite brilliant in their own ways. You just have to be patient enough to learn what our intelligences are. And by intelligences, I do not just mean academic intelligence. Many autistics are creative, musical, mathematical, scientific, video game smart, technological. Some autistics can tell you every birthday of every person they meet. Others turn out beautiful paintings or pottery or sculptures. Still others can look at a drawing and tell you exactly where a wall needs to be or look at a string of symbols and numbers and invent the next great piece of technology.

2. Autism is not a disease. It does not need a cure. And yes, that includes severe autism. If anything needs a cure, it is ignorance. What autistics need is love and acceptance. We need support and help so we can thrive in our communities. But we do not need a cure. 

3. Autism is not caused by vaccines. It is not damage. It is not a curse. It is not bad behavior. It is not the result of bad parenting. It is genetic in nature. Moms, dads, you did nothing wrong. You did nothing to cause autism. On a side note, vaccinations do save lives and reduce the once fatal diseases to a minimum. 

Dealing with Bullies

I will just post one of the links about dealing with a bully as opposed to rewrite the post.

http://ajourneythroughtheology.blogspot.com/2016/06/how-to-effectively-deal-with-bully.html?ref=source

Also, I have been reading Ron Fournier's Love That Boy about his autistic son. It's at a 4 star level because it is a little bit boring to me, but I love how the underlying and repeat message I am getting is that parents need to drop the expectations and let the children be who they are going to be. Autism initially seems like a slap in the face of reality when it comes to where reality meets expectations. I know that from experience. The hardest part of autism for me was not being properly diagnosed until adulthood. I had a lot of expectations of myself. I have had to wrestle with the diagnosis. And ultimately, I have had to let loose of the expectations and just accept the reality. It is a harsh mismatch. But I will not trade my autism for anything.