By Mary Ellen Bogucki As July came to a close, I witnessed the launch of the “Inclusion Revolution” with the Special Olympics 50th Anniversary Celebration. I wondered that with the celebration behind us, would the momentum continue and would society step up to the challenge? The challenge is defined in the “Inclusion Revolution” pledge. The pledge states: I pledge to look for the lonely, the isolated, the left out, the challenged and the bullied. I […]
by Tulika Prasad A few days back, while I was browsing the aisles of a store, my 9 yr old son brushed against another customer. I was hoping it would not be a big deal but she had something else in mind. I said sorry and explained that my son is autistic. She was not ready for that excuse and said that if that’s the case, I shouldn’t “let him loose” and that she has been […]
by Tulika Prasad Autism is a complex diagnosis. It’s a spectrum so it makes it all the more difficult to put it within the boundaries of a set of characteristics. As they say, every autistic individual has very unique traits and since it’s not a physical disability , sometimes autism is simply considered to be the result of bad parenting or a set of behavior anomalies that a person might have and therefore ignored or […]
by Maxine Rosaler I really can’t say what bewildered me more–the callousness with which the people at the school district responded to my requests for them to help my autistic son, or the occasional encounters with kindness I had along the way. My first encounter with kindness occurred during my son’s second week in kindergarten at a special needs school: The principal had called to tell me that she didn’t think the school was an […]
by Lynne Pearson We didn’t do a lot of birthday parties for Edward when he was younger as we pretty soon got the idea that he didn’t enjoy them. At his 5th birthday party we had invited a few friends round (mainly the children of our friends). We had organised some games and all the kids, with the exception of Edward, loved playing them. Whilst the games went on Edward was at the bottom of the […]
