Acceptance for Our Son David
When David is out in the community he must always have someone within arms reach and eyes on him at all times to keep him safe.
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Our son David is 32 years old and he has Severe Autism, an Anxiety Disorder, OCD, PTSD subsequent to abuse in a former group home and very Severe PICA. He has had 5 intestinal blockages requiring hospitalization and three surgeries. Because of the uncontrollable and life threatening nature of his PICA, he lives in a highly specialized group home which is free of all clutter. Anything and everything inedible that he and his housemates could ingest is locked up. When David is out in the community he must always have someone within arms reach and eyes on him at all times to keep him safe. This has been and continues to be a very long road with David, but these days we do see more glimmers of true Autism Acceptance. This doesn't mean we don't still have a very long road ahead of us. So many people still know very little about individuals with Severe and Profound Autism, and what their on-going and life-long needs are.
Autism Acceptance means being able to go David's favorite restaurant (Applebees of course) and have the entire staff greet him enthusiastically, give him hugs, get his iced coffee right away and, by example, teach all of their other customers that David deserves to be in that restaurant as much as they do, despite some of his unique "David" behaviors!
Autism Acceptance means that when David takes off his shoes and socks in the middle of the road to show you that he needs a pedicure, rather than honking and being nasty, the passengers in a long line of cars smile patiently and wave to let us know it's ok, that they will wait for him to make his way across the street!!
Autism Acceptance equals the community accepting our kids for who they are! Autism Awareness means teaching the community about Severe and Profound forms of Autism and Autism. Action means all of us at NCSA taking action to make the world a safer and happier place for our children!