World Autism Awareness Day
2 min read
By Camryn Hetrick
The United Nations general Assembly designated April 2nd to be World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) back in 2007. According to MayoClinic.org Autism is a condition related to brain development and how a person may perceive and socialize with others. This disorder also includes limited and repetitive pattern behaviors. Often children show symptoms of autism within the first year. A small number of children appear to develop normally in the first year, and then go through a period of regression between 18 and 24 months of age when they develop autism symptoms.
The point of world Autism Awareness Day is to raise awareness of autism and to promote acceptance and understanding. Even though they see and act a little differently they are just like anyone else. A way to spread awareness for WAAD is to educate yourself and others on Autism. Get involved in support groups and activities related to the learning of education of autism. One can wear a blue shirt or shirts with puzzle pieces to show one’s support as another option. If one can find an organization on autism one can always throw an autism friendly event. These events have sensory friendly things to do. As someone who has an autistic brother, I can say having these sensory friendly things is a game changer. If one can’t find any sensory friendly items one can always find what they like, most autistic people have a topic they admire which involves them learning and collecting items that relate to their topic of interest.
When interviewing Megan McIntyre, a student from Armstrong Sr-Jr Highschool she said, “I think it’s a fantastic topic to bring awareness too. It’s great for educating people and should be focused on more. Celebrating autism is a great way to make those who have autism feel empowered.” When interviewing Q patsy a Cosmo student here at Lenape Tech she said,” As someone who is autistic, autism awareness is unique. Autism acceptance is a better name of the day. Autism is misconstrued; a lot of people don’t seem to get it. Just because I can hold eye contact for a moment doesn’t mean I am not autistic. Just because I may not be the best at math or science doesn’t mean I am not Autistic. You’re not always going to look and be able to tell someone is autistic because they look like any other person.” Be an advocate, speak up and be a role model for others to follow, because they are human just like you.
