FOR ME, April is not about Fools’ Day or any other holiday. This month is dedicated for Autism Awareness. In fact, April 2 is an internationally recognized day known as World Autism Awareness Day. The yearly event aims to encourage all Member States of the United Nations “to take measures to raise awareness about people with Autism Spectrum Disorder throughout the world.”
As one of only seven official health-specific UN Days, the World Autism Awareness Day brings individual autism organizations together all around the world to aid in things like research, diagnoses, treatment, and overall acceptance for those affected by this developmental disorder.
Autismspeaks.org defines autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as “a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication.”
It is very common that people with ASD suffer with difficulty with communication and interaction with other people, restricted interests and repetitive behaviors, and symptoms that hurt the person’s ability to function properly in school, work, and other areas of life.
As the word spectrum suggests, ASD is not limited to one type or case as it is known to be a combination of genetic and environmental factors. This means that there are no two people with ASD to exhibit the same type of behavior and symptoms. It ranges from the mild to the severe, which oftentimes relate to the level of functioning of a certain person from lo to high functioning.
This also implies the fact that each person with ASD has a distinct set of strengths and challenges. It is clear that some people with ASD may require significant support in their daily lives, while others may need less support and, in some cases, live entirely independently.
As I have shared in my previous column before, there is an estimated 1 per cent of the population in the Philippines living with autism according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. While there is no available statistics on autism prevalence in the Philippines but using CDC data, there are least more than 1 million Filipinos who have autism.
More than spreading awareness to let more people understand autism and its challenges, we, parents of children with autism also yearn for something more than others being informed about what autism is all about. We look forward to that day, and hopefully it will happen very soon, when people will be more sympathetic, supportive, and accepting of our children.
We do not just wish our kids to feel included everywhere they go, be this at school, at the workplace, or even in public places, but we also want them to feel that they can do things the same way we can do them. They may be special or different, but they are definitely not less.
As a mom who saw the stares, who heard the whispers, and felt the judgement of people who do not even understand a thing or two about autism, I wish that someday, especially when I am no longer there to stand by him, my son can walk tall amidst his uniqueness and proudly tell the world that he is a child of God and that he deserves his place in this world.