In Honor Of Autism Awareness Month....

I haven't had any autism/asperger related blog posts lately so I decided to post this in honor of April Autism Awareness month. So many children and families are having to deal with autism and it's only getting worse.

My son was diagnosed with Asperger's when he was in eighth grade. He went so many years when we didn't know what was wrong with him, but we knew something was very wrong. It was such a relief when we finally had an answer, but it was also just the beginning.

I'm happy to say my son is doing very well now and is a finishing his junior year of college and, also doing an internship with a computer company near his college. He only calls if he has problems and I have to say, those calls have gotten fewer and fewer as he has learned to handle the problems on his own.

It hasn't always been so easy!

Konabarbie Celebrates '1000 Ausome Things' #AutismPositivity2013

Today is the last day of April and the end of Autism Awareness month, but hopefully not the end of autism awareness and acceptance. It is also autism flash blog day. Autism flash blog day was started last year in response to a google search by an unknown person typing in the search words "I wish I didn't have Aspergers." The flash blog was created to counter the negativity of those words with something more positive.

This year the focus of the flash blog is 1000 'Ausome' Things. As anyone who's been reading my blog for awhile knows, my son was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a high functioning form of autism, when he was 13 years old. It's hard to believe, but he will turn 21 years old next month!

Gosh I'm old!!

To us the diagnosis was never a negative one. It was actually a relief to finally have a name to something because we knew he was different. Us meaning me and my son because at the time of his diagnosis I was a single mom and it was just the two of us dealing with the school issues, the stomach issues and the sleeping issues.

All of those issues were dealt with in time and now he is doing great in college and loving it and living on his own. I couldn't imagine him any different than what he is, Asperger's and all. Personally, with the exception of the school struggles and IEP nightmares that weren't his fault, I think he was much easier to raise than an NT child.

He struggled in high school, but not only got into the college of his choice, but made the Dean's list last semester.

He learned how to play the violin in third grade and then taught himself how to play the guitar when he was a teen using methods he learned from violin in third grade.

Not to mention he's a computer genius!

And I'm not just saying that because I'm his mom!

Yes, he's "ausome"!