Autism - GGPAA

Welcome to our Autism Advocacy and Awareness web page. Sandy and I are Great-Grandparents and Legal Guardians busy raising our Great-Grandson, an Austistic Spectrum Disorder, 13 year old, 8th grader.

We are not educational or psychologist experts. We offer no professional recommendations or cures. All we have to offer and share are our exposures, experiences, investigative study results, understanding and concern from raising a young middle-school student with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Our Ambition, Desire and Purpose is to Advocate Awareness of Pervasive Development Disorders (PDD). We have started a local monthly group for information dissemination, questions, discussion and support for parents, extended families, friends, neighbors and the community in general.

The Autism Society of America states, "the terms, Autism (Greek for Self) and Autism Spectrum Disorder, are often used interchangeably and refer to three of the five disorders known as Pervasive Development Disorders. The three Autism Spectrum Disorders are: Austic Disorder, Asperger's (Syndrome) Disorder and PDD-NOS (not otherwise specified)."

Autism has no single cause. ASA describes "Autism as a brain disorder that affects a person's ability to communicate, to reason and to interact with others. It is a Spectrum disorder that affects individuals differently and to varying degrees of severity and is often found in combination with other disabilities. Autism Spectrum Disorders are neurological disorders, developmental disabilities. These disorders are not caused by psychological factors.

"Autism is not caused by bad parenting. Children with Autism are not unruly kids who choose to misbehave. Researcher believe there is a strong genetic component with a range of possible external or environmental triggers. Whatever the cause, it is clear thar children with Autism are born with the disorder or the potential to develop it.

"There are no medical tests for Autism. There is no cure for Autism. But evidence shows that early intervention results in positive outcomes for children with Autism. The earlier the better." -Autism Society of America

Autism was first described by Child Psychiatrist Len Kanner in 1943. In 1995 about one birth out of 650/1000 were autistic, several years ago it was 1 in 250 and today, one in 166 are Autistic. It affects boys 4 to 5 times more than girls.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at ggpaa@kuhens.org if you have any questions or comments. We're here to help.

-Culver L. Kuhens