Living in Georgia has been interesting for my family. My body loves the more laid back nature and the weather is not so bad after the summer heat cools down. One of the loveliest things about being here though is our community of non-speaking autistics and their families. I love this community and think it is awesome to get time together to interact and socialize with the communication support we need. The last gathering that we had was just for the sake of gathering together to communicate and have some fun.
It is awesome to be in community with others that are the same as you. Changing the minds of neurotypicals to understand that we are not so different can be hard to do. Being in the community as the one who stands out is tiring. Therefore it is amazing to be given the chance to be in the same space with others who have the same challenges.
It is wonderful to see the community have the opportunity to come together to work on getting life out in the challenging-to-be-in world. It was hard to have to wait for so long for our many desires for being in community with each other with the support that we need in order to see one another in the same space . Having to communicate in an alternative way is not easy to think through in social situations. Having the chance to get some time to practice without feeling the intense pressure of time and typical expectations made it much easier for us to enjoy the conversations. Giving this a chance more often would make our hearts happy.
It is because of the hard work of a few that our community has these opportunities. I think that we need to show our gratitude to those with the vision and determination to make our lives better. I think that it is about time to have some sort of award for those who are making it their goal to do whatever they can to see and support the beauty and competency in each one of us. I want to create this award today. It is going to be named the Life Giver award.
I am challenging each one of you to hand out many of these awards to those who are truly your Life Givers. I would like to make my parents the first official recipients. It is hard to describe what it is like to have them for parents, but it is many times life giving to be their daughter.
It is awesome to say thank you to the people who are the hardest working in your life. I want to encourage you to accept my beautiful challenge to send the Life Givers in your life some sweet love straight from the heart.
Graciela,
As always your writing is amazing. I love this and will give my life givers some “sweet love straight from the heart.”
I love you,
Jordyn
I recently found your blog through Philip Reyes’ blog, and I was so happy to find it! I’m a senior at Lafayette College, and I’ve started collecting data for my senior thesis. I’m studying the relationship between access to communication devices in childhood and wellbeing in adulthood for nonspeaking populations. Participants are asked to fill out an online survey that takes less than 30 minutes and they can be entered to win an Amazon gift card. The study is IRB approved, and I’m hoping the results will be useful for nonspeaking individuals and their families.
I was wondering if you might be interested in participating or if you might know anyone who is at least 18 years old now but was nonspeaking for some or all of childhood? They may still be nonspeaking, but don’t have to be.
Here’s the link to the survey if you know any adults who might be interested in participating! https://lafayettec.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3HSA7XwQr8SAsi9
I’d love to chat with you more about it if you have any questions!
Thanks so much,
Erin