I had the privilege of speaking at my son’s school last week and it was AMAZING. It’s something I have done for the past few years and I plan to do it for as long as I am able!

This year, I read a book called Artie Is Awesome! If you haven’t read it, you can find it on Amazon. This book is written perfectly with great examples of what autism looks/feels like, how to be a good friend, and it has really cute funny parts too! I HIGHLY recommend this book for all young children and families to enjoy together. (Great for children preschool age to 3rd grade!)

We always pick a day during April for Autism Awareness Month and the kids really look forward to it! For our family, we live and breath autism awareness! But what I love about spreading autism awareness in school, is that these young children are learning early on that everyone is unique and different in their own special way. They’re learning and growing with each other every day!

They are so eager to learn and listen to everything you’re saying to them! I read them the Artie is Awesome book and I talked about what autism is, what that can feel like, and how people with autism have to work really hard to do things that we can do.

I explained how Ethan has a team of people in his life that help him every single day. There are therapists to help him talk, run, write, stay safe, and more! We talked about how difficult things can be for him and why it’s so important that we have people to help him through the tough times.

I also took time to answer questions they had and boy did they have some good ones! It always amazes me how smart they are and how they truly want to understand the world around them.

After we finished talking about why autism awareness is important, we then discussed autism acceptance. We talked about what the word acceptance means and how we can be more accepting of our friends with autism!

This conversation went REALLY well! They all had a pretty good idea of what acceptance means and how they can be good friends. And that’s what it’s all about!

I ended by saying that it is important to be accepting of our friends with autism, but it’s super important to be accepting of ALL of our friends! We are all special and unique in our own way and we should love each other for who we truly are.

Obviously by these adorable pictures his friends definitely accept him 🙂

They love Bubba just as much as we do. And these pictures make my heart explode!

I wanted to share this because I believe autism acceptance starts with US!

I’d like you to take time to talk with your children, read books, share stories, and ask questions! Take time to learn, educate yourself and your loved ones. Not just during autism awareness month, but every day! The more we are aware the more acceptance we will see.

Knowledge is power…