As I interact with young parents with children with autism, I am inspired by their patience and dedication to working with professionals, doctors, and service providers to provide the best possible help for their family and kids.<\/p>\n
Autism by definition is a condition that affects how a person thinks, feels, and interacts with others. It is a lifelong disability acquired since birth. Every person with autism is different. <\/p>\n
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, autism affects 1 in 44 children in the United States today.<\/p>\n
Early signs of autism are not responding to their names, avoiding eye contact, repetitive movements, and many other behaviors on a spectrum. I came into contact with a 2-year-old boy who was fascinated by the tires on my wheelchair. He would always try to push me so that the tires turn and he would get so excited. I noticed he was always holding on to a toy car on one hand. His parents said he was into cars and tires. So I let him do whatever he wanted to do with my wheelchair. It was fun to see him get excited over something so random as a wheelchair tire. I can only imagine the daily challenges faced by people with autism. It is estimated that 25% to 50% of kids diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder never develop a spoken language, making it difficult to communicate.<\/p>\n
April 2022 is Autism Awareness Month. This year\u2019s theme is \u201cInclusion in the workplace: Challenges and Opportunities in a Post-Pandemic World.\u201d I have attended several autism night and hotdog run events that raised awareness about autism. All proceeds went to a good cause. <\/p>\n
Please join me and celebrate Autism Awareness Month in April as we recognize children, parents and individuals with autism.<\/p>\n
For more information contact NMPASI at (670) 235-7273\/4 or visit us on the web at www.nmpasi.org, www.facebook.com\/NMPASI, and follow us on Instagram @nmpasi670.<\/p>\n
John Allen Cabrera (Special to the Saipan Tribune)<\/strong> As I interact with young parents with children with autism, I am inspired by their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":331236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21416],"class_list":["post-365941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-autism-awareness-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJohn Allen Cabrera is a client advocate at the Northern Marianas Protection and Advocacy Systems Inc.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"