My top five autism awareness posts

It's World Autism Awareness Week next week.  Along with millions of people worldwide, I am, always, hopeful that the week will help highlight what autism is and is not and how fabulous people with autism (like two of my kids) are and also how challenging life can be for them and those who care for them sometimes.   The hope is that awareness leads to acceptance - that's the real goal. So here's my top five autism awareness posts from my blog.

1.  See that naughty kid in the restaurant, at the museum, cinema or pool?  Hang on a moment, he might not be being naughty at all.  In fact he may be doing a brilliant job and instead of your stares could just do with a bit of understanding.

Not so sure? Then read my apology to those who are upset by my autistic kids when we are in public places.  It was written in response to a journalist complaining about such behaviour in a restaurant she was in, and it affected her so much, she reached out to us.

2. Look out for that lunatic child in the playground.  Err, maybe not.  I'm watching my kids way more than you'd think.  I'm aware they look a bit odd but think about what you are saying or portraying by your words and actions please. Autism isn't catching you know and autistic people are not people to avoid.

Read, you don't need to shield your kids from my autistic children.

3.  Has your kids had a meltdown recently?  No I mean a real meltdown, where your child would rather die than have life continue in it's present state.  If you don't think there's a difference, why not see how it feels to watch my son have a meltdown and see what you think.

See how his life falls apart because his sister doesn't have bother her shoes on.

4.  Not sure how to put autism awareness and acceptance into practice?  You can do it everywhere!  Here's some examples though in my post on five places you can understand autistic kids and their families.

5. For those who might have an idea about autism, here's my final post.  There's been plenty of autism inspired TV last year - which I love!  But it's often not simple of figure why or what's going on with the autistic characters.

This last post pulled out things that happened on the BBC The A Word show and gives a clue as to what was behind the actions of the main character Joe, a recently diagnosed 6 year old autistic boy. Read about some autism explanations right here.

It's often the case that people don't see the part of Anthony that's amazing brave, or the parts of David when he shows ultimate joy. But hopefully by being aware of their autism, you may understand their odd behaviours and actions and get to see them as they are.. truly wonderful kids.