Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness Month! So what is autism?

Children and Adults with autism have challenges in:
Social interactions
Verbal and non-verbal communication
The ability to learn
Repetitive behaviors
Unusual or severely limited activities and interests

People with autism often find it hard to communicate with others in a typical way and my not understand social conventions, as a result of that individuals with autism often respond in ways we are not use to in everyday situations and changing environments. The spectrum of autism varies greatly in severity, some individuals with more severe autistic conditions can have serious cognitive disabilities and symptoms of extremely repetitive and unusual behaviours which can include aggression, self-injury all caused by the inability to communicate properly. Living with a person with severe autism can be very challenging and may require great patience and understanding of the condition. However in its weakest form autism is but a personality difference in the non-understanding of social conventions.

What can we do?
As Canadians it is our duty to be accepting and understanding of all people, if you know someone who suffers from autism or someone who cares for the autistic, give and show your support during Autism Awareness Month.

For more information check out these sites:
http://www.autismspeaks.org/ways-give?gclid=CLeq5eeamr0CFYFhMgodgU0Aqg
http://autismcanada.org/index.html?gclid=CNCWiYObmr0CFYFhMgodgU0Aqg