When I was younger I had the same dream that most young girls have. Which is to meet and fall in love with prince charming, get married, have children, and live happily ever after. But never in my young girl's dreams did I ever imagine I would become a mother of two children with Autism. In fact, back in those days, I didn’t even know what autism was. It was a word I had never really heard before. But when I turned eighteen and had gotten married I soon became pregnant, changing my life forever. I became the proud mother of my son who has high functioning autism and two years later the mother of my daughter with moderate-severe autism.
People often ask me "What is Autism?" and I am so glad they ask.
All too often people think that autism is some strange disease or illness and that simply is not true.
Autism is a cognitive disability that affects how a person functions in our everyday world. Often times people with Autism have restricted patterns of behavior and impairments in social interaction. In other words, autism is a different way of thinking and interacting with the world. Most of the time but not always, a person with autism thinks in pictures. It’s almost like they have a movie constantly playing in their heads. So in a world where we as neurotypical people know how to communicate with others, most people with autism struggle to find the right words or actions to match a conversation or situation.
However, Autism is a wide spectrum of disorders and no two people with autism are the same. Some people with Autism have no issues communicating with others but have a harder time in other areas such as everyday life skills.
This is why I spent most of my young adult life learning about autism and advocating for my children. I knew that I needed to be the voice that would stand up and forever protect them since autism was such a wide range spectrum and so often misunderstood. I also wanted to find a way to help other parents with children with unique needs. This is how and why I wrote my first book a novella titled Nine Months To Autism.
Nine Months To Autism is the story of how my children were diagnosed with Autism and some of the struggles we faced in the early years. It is a short read and it was my very first attempt at writing anything. But the story in the book is true and I hope that one day my story will help another family facing some of the same struggles we had faced. Nine Months to Autism can be found and purchased on Amazon.com as well as other online retailers.
