World Autism Day...and little red wagon #126

On my soapbox for just a minute - I know I say in my profile that autism will come up often, but honestly, I try not to have it take over. Frankly, autism is pretty much the REST of my life. Besides lighting the blue porch light yesterday for World Autism Day, I wasn't going to mention it, and then this morning I read Joan's post at Paperlicious. Empathy really is worth cultivating. The classmates who look out for my boys have hearts of gold. Only one of my boys has been accepted by his peers to the point of having friends over or being invited to birthday parties, but it's not the big events that matter most. It's the kids who help when the teacher can't, or the kids who stick up for my youngest when he's being bullied (sadly, a common occurrence).

New statistics have been released on the prevalence of autism in the United States - now 1 in 88 children. Five times as many boys as girls. That means 1 in 72 boys. That's nearly 2 percent of our boys, and although there's lots of research, there is very little practical help for any but the wealthy. And here I'm talking about Canada. In fact, schools are cutting more and more, and even though already both of my children are struggling with their supports being cut, there are more cuts on the horizon for the next school year. The emphasis is on early intervention, but to grow successful adults, development and intervention do not stop at age five.

As an example, Connor did not speak coherently until age seven. Everything I'd read prior to that spoke of the 'golden time' for language acquisition being before age 5. He didn't receive any speech therapy once he went to school, other than a yearly evaluation - and what I provided at home. Do you give up on your child because there's not funding available to provide the right therapies? My wish for Autism Awareness Month is that these kids receive the support and education that they deserve. It won't happen, because it's expensive. I must say, though, that I'm tired of fighting the same fight year after year, only to see more of the bare-bones services clawed away. It makes the teachers' jobs harder, it makes my childrens' lives harder, and it makes me angry. It's a lot less expensive to provide proper support during school years than it is to provide full-time residential care for an adult.

(OK, off my soapbox now. I think)

Supplies: cloud paper from K & Co;
standard oval Nesties;
parachuting bunny digi from MelStampz;
sentiment digi from lazy daisy

This week's challenge at little red wagon is "Up in the Clouds", open until tonight. I love this little parachuting bunny from MelStampz! I cut some clouds out of the patterned paper & popped them up for dimension, and there you have it.

Thanks for bearing with me!
xoxo,
Jessi