Raising a Future Advocate

Dear fellow momma at my sons therapy center,

Today, you may have heard my oldest ask, “who’s that yelling?”

I thought we covered autism, but I was so focused on explaining her brother’s autism, I forgot to go into detail about the whole spectrum.  

I took this as a teaching moment, but you weren’t in the car with us.

There’s no way you would know this.

My daughter is the sweetest, most compassionate kid I know.

She’s also naturally very curious.

Her question stemmed from curiosity. But we talked about how that would make him feel. 

We talked about how our words have power.

How even when we don’t mean to, we can hurt someone’s feeling.

Your son yells when he’s happy. It’s the most joyous sound.  

We watched a video, and talked about the spectrum.

We talked about stimming, we used all kinds of examples including yelling. 

You see, I know I am raising an amazing young lady who will advocate her butt off for her little brother.

But I also hope to be raising an amazing advocate for the entire autism community.

Today, your son helped me bring a bit more autism awareness to our home.

Written by, Michele Rudd

I’m a wife and mother. I have 2 amazing kids. My almost 8 year old daughter, Cameron and my amazing 3.5 year old son, CJ.

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