It’s Autism Awareness Month; it rolls around every year at the same time. I, and all parents and caregivers, grasp at this month with all our might in hopes that we can somehow use it to improve the world for our children. This feeling is something most people who do not love and care for a child with a profound disability, whose children grow to live independently, do not and will never understand. The Puzzle Piece We spent nearly a century fighting to identify Autism. To give it a name and identify features that could be jotted down, then studied and observed. The symbolism of the puzzle piece is now used to illustrate the growing understanding of the bigger picture that is Autism. From this picture, the identifiable diagnosis, we birthed ‘Autism Awareness.’ We now have a description, an identity that we can use to educate the greater population, and…
