Today is World Autism Awareness day and people all over the world are trying to increase awareness in the hope of fostering better understanding, tolerance and inclusion for those with autism. My 7 year old son is severely autistic and despite living with this diagnosis for over 5 years we still struggle to cope with the enormity of it all and the impact his autism has had on our family. It's frightening to read that more children will be diagnosed with
autism this year in the developed world than with diabetes, cancer,
& AIDS combined.

Since starting my blog I've been very lucky to have had contact with many other parents of autistic children and the sharing of experiences and information has been invaluable. Having an autistic child is not something that you really learn to cope with or get over. You are torn in two because you adore your child and yet at the same dearly wish you could banish their autism. At the same time autism makes them who they are. You learn to live one day at a time and try not to fear the future. If you're interested and have 7 minutes to spare there is a video here made by mums of autistic children which gives a glimpse into some aspects of daily life.

I write about Toby's autism in the hope that sharing my experiences
will help other parents in the same position and also with the aim of giving anyone with no personal
experience of autism a little understanding of the condition. Understanding helps promote tolerance in the general community and hopefully means less judgement and hostility towards people who are different and more inclusion generally. We don't need to change autistic people, just our attitude towards them. As always I'm hugely grateful for the tolerance and understanding that always meets me here, but then you are an enlightened and big-hearted crowd and I love you for that. Thanks x

PS: I've added a new page with a little information on Autism here.