1 in 54 . . .
This is the prevalence of autism statistic recently released by the Center for Disease Control.
1 in 54 . . .
If you’re not familiar with autism or don’t know someone who is affected by it, it would be natural to read this statistic and feel sadness or even fear. I want to encourage you that I read this statistic and thought….Wow! I’m excited to see how God is going to change the color of our world through these kiddos.
I’ve had the privilege of getting to know hundreds of families raising children with autism over the past two decades. As someone who works with children with autism but is not raising a child with autism (I know my view is different from the view of the mommas walking what can be a very isolating, frustrating, and lonely road), here is what I can tell you:
- Autism brings creativity yet it also brings order.
- Autism brings simplicity yet it also brings creative ways to complete the simplest of tasks.
- Autism makes me think outside the box.
I remember the first little girl I met who had an official diagnosis of autism. It was back in the year 1999 when I was working at Rocky Mountain Village, a summer camp run by Colorado Easter Seals. At that point, the statistic for autism was 1 in 500. I remember the camp I worked at had different weeks for different students—one for children with physical disabilities, one for teens with developmental disabilities, even one for children living with hemophilia or muscular dystrophy. The first week of July, we had a 1/2 week for children with autism. They only had a half week because no one really knew a lot about autism, and they found parents of children with autism were hesitant to send their children anywhere for a week because they didn’t know how others would handle their child’s needs.
This particular week, we were all assigned one-on-one to a camper. No one had any more than one camper. I was assigned Katie. At the time, Katie was nine years old and non-verbal. I didn’t know anything about autism, and I had no idea how the next few days would work.
What I quickly learned was that Katie saw the world through a different lens. Her lens was much more detail-focused than mine and much more exciting!
For weeks, I had been walking into the main dining room through the automatic sliding glass door with the idea that the food was the prize. Katie was always excited about going to the dining room, but not for the food. Katie looked forward to the noise and the movement of the automatic sliding glass door. In fact, she was so excited to watch the door, she didn’t want to keep walking to the table where the food was waiting for us. Because it was summer camp, and I wanted her to have a couple of days filled with everything she loved, I brought our food over to the sliding door, and we had a picnic on the floor. We watched as the door would open and close when we threw our hands in the air. Katie would squeal each time the door opened. I can still remember the look on Katie’s face. It is one I’ll never forget. It was the same look my kids give on Christmas morning when they rush downstairs to see what Santa has left under the tree. It’s the look of pure excitement and joy . . . not because of gifts, but because of a sliding glass door.
For the next few days, Katie and I ate our meals right next to the door . . . but for the remainder of the summer, I walked into the dining room looking at those doors through a new lens. No longer were those doors just part of the building; they were these huge windows that would flash open at the drop of the hat and produce the most calming sound. These doors now brought a smile to my face as I remembered the pure JOY they provided Katie.
That summer, autism taught me to see the world differently. Everything could be exciting and full of wonder. Even the most random thing can provide extreme JOY if we look at it through a different lens.
I encourage each of you to reach out to someone with autism. Take some time to connect. Learn to see the world through their eyes and discover the things that bring them joy. You will probably find out you have more in common than you think, but you’ll also find out they have a lot to teach you about life and who God is.
