04/30/2026
April is coming to a close which means National Autism Awareness Month is on its way out. In our house, we live in the wild and wonderful world of autism every day. If you can do the simplest thing for autistic people everywhere, please have it be open dialogue. Even if you don’t know much about autism and what it means, how it presents, the wide variety of obstacles that all of the amazing autistic people in our world have to overcome…please just talk about it. Talk about it with your kids, your spouse, your parents (they grew up in a different time and maybe don’t have the understanding we do today due to how far we’ve come in research to better understand how this all works). At the very least, sit at dinner with your family and talk about how everyone’s perfectly different in their own way. Talk about how autism isn’t scary. Talk about how people with autism are creative, smart, funny, athletic, brave, kind, loving and innovative. Talk about how people with autism are just like you and I. Everyone has something they need to work through, do differently and try harder because of. Autism is the same.
Autism is a spectrum, meaning one autistic person is not exactly like the next. It’s beautiful and sometimes heartbreaking. It can be debilitating but also wonderfully transformative for autistic people and those that love them. I love living in a world where acceptance is ever-growing for the way that one of my favorite people dances through it.
Tell your autistic friends you love them. If their sensory limits allow, hug them. From firsthand experience, it will be the highlight of their day.