Why Autism Awareness And Acceptance Is So Important - KTXS

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ACCESSIBILITYWhy autism awareness and acceptance is so important

by Farrah Walton

Mon, April 4, 2022 at 4:06 PMautism.jpg (Farrah/KTXS)Comment on this story0CommentShare storyShare

topics:

• Rachel Goulet
• Accessibility
• Autism
• Autism Rights Movement
• Autism-friendly
• Branches Of Biology
• Disability
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders

ABILENE, Texas — April is set aside to bring awareness to those with autism, but it's more than simply being aware.

Autism spectrum disorder has several levels of diagnoses from mild to moderate to severe. They each come with different behavior or ability deficits ranging from social to language skills and more. 1 in 44 children have autism.

Rachel Goulet, the clinical operations manager for the Houston Lantrip’s Center for Literacy and Learning, says autism awareness is learning and understanding what autism is, what it means, and being aware that there are people in our community who are on the spectrum.

“Acceptance of it has become kinda the new thing. Not just awareness, but acceptance because I think a lot of people for a long time felt like, if you had autism you had to try to correct it whereas that may not be the case. You’re learning to live with it," says Goulet.

Goulet also says, “It’s important to understand how their experience might differ from ours.”

People with autism may get overstimulated by certain things, such as additional noise or too many people in a room, according to Goulet.

“Or they may be struggling to communicate with you for various reasons and giving them that room to just have comfort in that space and know ‘hey, this person is accepting of me. I can come to them as I am and know they are going to welcome me,’” Goulet says.

The acceptance part “is knowing if you interact with someone like that, you can just treat them just like everybody else. It’s accepting who they are and not necessarily trying to change them," she says.

Goulet says new parents should be familiar with the main signs of autism. For parents whose child was diagnosed with autism: services and people are out there to help you.

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