About Me

I am the proud mother of 6 children. 5 of our children have autism. We do not feel our world has ended, but just begun. We do not chelate, intervene biochemically, give shots of any kind, practice ABA, etc. We treat them as we treat any humanbeing. We treat them with kindness and respect and expect the same from them. They are exceptional children.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

IT'S PUZZLING TO ME....

The puzzle piece, I mean...
The puzzle piece was chosen to be the International "symbol" for Autism. Supposedly, person's with Autism were missing something....no one can figure out what is missing....so therefore, they are missing a piece of themselves.
My thought is that isn't everyone a puzzle piece then? Are we all not missing something...looking to achieve something more...always searching for something better in our lives.
Me, I want to write a book. Not the "Great American Novel"...just a book about life...my life.
I talk to almost everyone I meet. I like to find out some little something about everyone. Through doing this, I have found out that everyone has a story. Every person is still looking for something. Some people get lost on their way to finding what they want, ie, drugs, bad relationships, etc. Most all of them are working hard to get back on track.
As a mother of six children, 5 whom happen to have Autism, they are no more puzzling than anybody else out there. In fact, I believe persons with Autism know what they want more than a person not diagnosed with Autism.
Persons with Autism do not find themselves puzzling at all...it is quite the opposite. Maybe it is society that needs to be "fixed". Maybe we need to redefine Autism so people who don't know what it is won't be so puzzled by it. Parent's of Autistic children cannot even agree what "Autism" is. How do we expect society to figure it out?
Now that is puzzling!!!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe you are right. I am not Autistic, and I feel that something is missing out of my life. I do not know if it is because I am not married or that I do not have kids yet and these are things I still want from my life. I believe that everyone will always be missing something, because people are always wanting more out of life. It is very rare to find someone who has all their dreams and ambitions fulfilled and want nothing more out of life. I believe people with Autism are not missing part of themselves anymore than people without Autism. I do not understand why the international “symbol” for Autism is a puzzle piece. I feel that people with Autism have a better understanding of what they want out of life and do not feel scared about trying to get what they want like others are without Autism. People with Autism do not need to be fixed, because they are who they are and no one should try to change them. It is very hard to define Autism because no one quite understands how Autism works and what it entails. I believe you are right, how can society figure out Autism if people who are the closest to Autistic people do not understand or agree on what Autism really is. I work with preschoolers with Autism and so I see how the children work and understand things, yet I still do not fully understand how Autism works and I do not believe I ever truly will. I agree with you that Autism is very puzzling.

Emma<3 said...

It's not supposed to be a missing piece is it? I believe it's because all the pieces are there, we just don't know how to piece them together.

Lyn said...

Do it. Write a book. It would probably be extremely interesting.

But I don't see autistic people as having something missing, so it sort of annoys me to see those puzzle pieces. I think the missing piece is fully understanding the perspective of someone autistic and when that happens, will it make things better?