Autism for Parents

In my last post, I posed myself the question of what aspect of autism should I focus my awareness efforts on this year for Autism Awareness Month, and on what audience should I focus those efforts. After just a little bit of thought, I realized that the audience I want to reach out to are the parents of children newly diagnosed as autistic. By deciding on this audience, the topics I should focus on also became clear to me: all of them.

One of the hardest times for most parents of autistic children is when they first receive the diagnosis. This is due in large part, I believe, to the widespread lack of knowledge or understanding of autism by the general public.

Until they receive this diagnosis, most people don't know much, if anything, about autism and after they receive the diagnosis there is a crash rush to learn everything as soon as possible. While there is not a whole lot I can do to change first situation, no matter how many "awareness campaigns" I embark on, I can do something to help parents in the second situation.

To that end, I've created Autism for Parents. Though based on the WordPress blog system (and hosted at WordPress.com), my intent is to make it more than just a blog, including pages listing various other resources I think will be of interest to parents.

I am also hoping to make Autism for Parents comprehensive as I can, to help parents get a feel for the entire landscape. Though I have my own beliefs concerning autism - and will continue to write about them here at 29 Marbles - I will include information about those views I don't agree with. In any decision making process, it is vital to understand all sides of a question before making a decision. I feel it is only right to help parents see all aspects of the issue before making the right decision for them.

I hope to see you there.

tagged as: Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, Neurodiversity, Blogging, WordPress, Parenting