Every April, the nation honors Autism Awareness Month. Businesses, both large and small, partner with autism organizations to help increase awareness of autism spectrum disorders. Campaigns typically take on one or both of the following messages: autism awareness and autism acceptance.
Autism Statistics
One of the primary components of autism awareness campaigns is the presentation of autism statistics. At this point, the official autism prevalence rate is 1 in 150 children and 1 in 94 boys. However, some states have higher incidences of autism. By publicizing this statistic, people are becoming increasingly aware of the growing prevalence of autism spectrum disorder diagnoses.
Autism Acceptance
Another component of autism awareness is autism acceptance. The idea of autism acceptance (sometimes called neurodiversity acceptance) is that individuals on the autism spectrum don’t need to change. They don’t need to be cured. They don’t need to be fixed. They merely need to be accepted for who they are. Organizations like The Autism Acceptance Project are made up of individuals on the autism spectrum, and other supporters, to help spread the word about autism acceptance.
Another prominent organization in the autism acceptance movement is The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN). “ASAN was created to provide support and services to individuals on the autism spectrum while working to change public perception and combat misinformation by educating communities about persons on the autism spectrum.” Source: ASAN
Dispelling Myths
Parents of children with autism are often faced with myths and misconceptions about autism. Autism is a true spectrum disorder and symptoms, abilities, and impairments can range drastically from one individual to the next. Common myths about individuals with autism is that they are unloving, they are always in their own world, and that they never make autism.
Another set of myths that plagues the autism community is centered on the cause of autism. Although the myth of refrigerator mothers causing autism was dispelled years ago, it still comes up every now and then as the cause for a child’s autism. The term refrigerator mothers comes from the concept that a mother’s lack of love and warmth for her child caused autism.
Another harmful autism cause theory blames mothers for steps that they have taken while the child was in utero; from terbutaline to stave off premature labor to receiving a rhogam shot containing mercury. Neither of these theories has been proven yet mothers of children with autism who received either of these medications are often left with feelings of self-blame.
Autism awareness campaigns that help to dispel these myths do a service to everyone in the autism community. As these autism myths are replaced by facts, awareness and acceptance of autism will stretch beyond families and out into the general public.
Autism awareness may mean something different for each parent of a child with autism. However, knowing the current autism prevalence rate, understanding autism acceptance, and beginning to dispel many of the most common autism myths is an important part of autism awareness to many.
Melissa Hincha-Ownby - Melissa is a life-long writer. She started her freelance writing career in the 8th grade when the editor of her small town’s ...
