I’m of two minds about the “Light It Up Blue” for autism event scheduled for April 1 and 2.  On the one hand, I’m all in favor of raising awareness of autism spectrum disorders and this worldwide effort is amazing.

On the other hand, rather than lighting the Empire State Building blue, perhaps the management company who runs the building could hire 10 people with autism and give them good jobs.  Or ask every tenant in the building to hire one person with autism. Perhaps rather than ask President Obama to light up the White House he could pass legislation that would revise ERISA so that self funded insurance plans would have to provide needed autism services, or maybe, just maybe he could get Congress to actually FUND special education at the level that was promised over 30 years ago.

Then again, maybe that’s just me.

Join the Connecticut autism community – parents, family members, persons with autism, policy makers and legislators as we bring autism awareness to the Capitol in Hartford on Monday, April 4, 2011. The program will run from 10-12 in the State Capitol Building. All legislators have been invited, but one way to make sure that they come is for YOU to call or e-mail with a personal invitation from a constituent.

Don’t know who your legislator is or how to contact them? Click here for the “find your legislator” tool.

Don’t know what to say? How about “Hi, my name is Joe Smith and I live in your district. I have a child with autism/I’m a person with autism/I’m a professional who works with people with autism and I’m looking forward to seeing you at the Autism Awareness Day event on Monday, April 4 at the State Capitol building.”

We will read the Autism Awareness Month in Connecticut proclamation and hear from legislators and representatives of autism advocacy groups. It’s a great chance to meet  your legislator as well as other policy makers and let them know what you need  We’ll even provide the coffee.

Call us at 888-453-4975 or e-mail if you have any questions.  See you on Monday!

So glad to see that people are talking about this very important subject. We here at ASCONN have been helping our families keep their loved ones safe through our mini-grant program. Since 2005 we have helped over 100 families right here in Connecticut build fences, install alarms and guards, purchase “child find” systems and many other items. Applications for the 2011 “Help Now” mini-grant program are available on our website.

Help us continue to help our families by making a donation to ASCONN to support this much needed program!

Dangerous Wandering a Lesser Known Side of Autism – US News and World Report.

I’m teaching a Parent Advocacy class this month and this week’s session was a review of the IEP document.  We took a blank IEP and went through it, page by page, discussing what belongs where and how the document gets put together.  As we were working our way through, I kept hearing the same thing “Hey, I’ve never seen this page!”.

Hello?! What?! Are you kidding me?! These are not “newbie” parents, many have children in later elementary or middle school and there are pages to the IEP that THEY HAVE NEVER SEEN? What’s up with that?

So, today’s challenge for my Connecticut families. Go find your last IEP. Check two things. Look at the bottom of the first page. Note the revision date. It should be “Revised Feb 2009a”. Now look over to the far left bottom corner  where there is a little, tiny page number. It should start with 1 and go up to 12 inclusive. There may be more than one of some of the pages, but there should AT LEAST be one each of the 12 pages.

If there isn’t? Gather up your IEP and march on down to your school. Talk to the Director of Special Education or the Coordinator. Ask why you don’t have a COMPLETE IEP document. Remind them that this is a legal document and they are required to fill it out completely and to give you a COMPLETE COPY. Then call the Bureau of Special Education at the CT State Department of Education and file a complaint.

For more information about IEP forms and what they should look like, click here.

I found this great piece on Slate.com creating two new basketball brackets for the tournament. One was team colors, the other, mascots. (My pick?  The Akron Zips.  Zippy the Kangaroo all the way.) What an interesting way to view the brackets!

Think about it. In order to actually win the office pool you have to pick a team to go to the final four that the rest of the pool has not chosen. If everyone picks the same final four teams, then no one person can win the pool. You have to go against the group consensus. You have to take a chance on a long shot. You may go down in flames, but it is your only chance of winning. We call this “out of the box” thinking.

In order to do that, you have to think about the bracket differently than everyone else.

That’s what our loved ones with autism do every day.

One of the most interesting and frustrating issues when working with people with autism is often the fact that they often don’t get the group consensus. What is important to the rest of us neurotypicals may just not be the important detail to our kid. Whether it is a focus on the “wrong” detail (like the fact that the book store downtown is the one with the blue door, as opposed to the store that sells books) or the inability to focus on the teacher’s voice when there is a fan spinning in the room, as parents and teachers we are often frustrated by what seems to us to be an inability to focus on the important.

Don’t get me wrong, focusing on the teacher’s voice vs the fan is probably useful. But you know, sometimes looking at the world through a slightly different prism is also useful. It is this different viewpoint that enables someone like Temple Grandin to understand cattle and design better cattle handling systems. It is this different viewpoint that discovers new cures for diseases, solves math problems, creates better video games and computer programs, paints better pictures, tells stories, expresses itself in music. It is this viewpoint that picks the long shot and wins the pool.

So, let’s remember that while it is important to help our kids navigate our world successfully, sometimes we should try to enter their world. We should try to respect their way of thinking and not always dismiss a thought process that focuses on the “unimportant”. Let’s not be rigid ourselves. Go Zips!

The first round of puzzlethon™ may be over, and if you missed it, remember puzzlethon™ continues on Saturday, April 2 at Sacred Heart University and Southern CT State University.  Sign up here.

Learn more about our puzzlethon™ from Saturday:

Here’s a short video of our northwest corner coordinator, Sharon Cable, talking about puzzlethon™.  As if that wasn’t enough excitement for the corner, here’s the Register Citizen article.

Not to be outdone, the southeast chimes in – from the Norwich Bulletin.

Collections continue through April 30 – so if you didn’t get a chance, you can still donate.

Check out our very own Puzzlethon™ chair, Melissa Dumont as she chats with Scot Haney on Better CT yesterday.  Way to go Melissa.  See everyone at the puzzlethon!!!!!

As Puzzlethon™ is ASCONN’s major fundraiser for the year, of course, I love it because the money it raises helps ASCONN do the things we do. Mini-grants to families to build fences or buy door locks or window guards to keep children safe; running support groups to help families connect with each other, learn and share; advocating for change in policy and legislation; helping families find the resources they need for their loved ones; and all the programs, services and resources that ASCONN provides to our community.

But the real reason to love Puzzlethon™? It’s stories like Ali’s. Ali is a non-verbal young lady who amazed her parents and teachers with her enthusiasm for Puzzlethon™. Ali’s parents had struggled with her behavior as Ali had a very difficult time in new environments or where things were out of the ordinary. A trip to the market was a challenge most days. But Ali really wanted to come to Puzzlethon™. So her parents brought her there expecting that she might not even make it in the door, or if she did, that her tolerance would only go so far and they would have to leave within minutes of arriving. Surprise, surprise, for more than TWO HOURS, Ali joined in the Puzzlethon™, completing several puzzles in an unfamiliar environment. The look of joy on Ali’s face and her parents’ faces is what Puzzlethon™ means to me.

Come on out on Saturday, March 5 (yes that is THIS Saturday) from 12-4 at sites around the state.  Find the location nearest you on our website. Create a fundraising page for yourself or donate to an existing participant or team. Most of all, come and join in a wonderful event where everyone can have fun. All ages. All abilities.  See you there!