{"id":9870,"date":"2014-04-07T10:01:13","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T15:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=9870"},"modified":"2014-06-17T12:58:32","modified_gmt":"2014-06-17T17:58:32","slug":"autism-awareness-recognizing-the-disorder-and-the-challenges-it-carries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2014\/04\/07\/autism-awareness-recognizing-the-disorder-and-the-challenges-it-carries\/","title":{"rendered":"Autism Awareness: Recognizing the disorder and the challenges it carries"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Facing challenges in social situations, engaging in repetitive behaviors and living with a language delay \u2014 these are some of the difficulties individuals with autism face, according to Dr. Mary Wells, professor of Psychology at Sinclair Community College.<\/p>\n

Although, according to Nursing major Amber Esquivel-Wright, raising an autistic son has its own daily challenges as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no rhyme or reason for kids who suffer from autism,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a challenge. I think he really teaches me more than I would have ever been taught in a class, he\u2019s really opened my eyes to his thinking. [When living with] people with autism, you really have to get on their level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esquivel-Wright said autistic individuals are very smart, but have a hard time with social interactions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can talk to you, he is high-functioning \u2026 Looking at him, he is very normal looking, there are no physical signs of anything wrong with him,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the moment he starts to talk to you, you realize that there is something wrong, because he cannot coordinate a conversation back and forth.\u201d<\/p>\n

She spends a lot of her time at doctor\u2019s appointments with her son, something she feels other\u00a0 s don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of my time is involved with him,\u201d she said. \u201cWe go to therapy at Children\u2019s every week, and doctor appointments every week. We basically live at Children\u2019s, and that\u2019s what people don\u2019t understand \u2014 it really takes your whole life \u2026 To see where he was two years ago and to see him today is just astounding, but he\u2019s got a long road ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esquivel-Wright feels unless people are personally touched by autism in some way, it is an easy issue to overlook. She didn\u2019t become an advocate for autism awareness until February 2012, when her son was diagnosed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in healthcare, you hear about it, you hear these terms, you hear different causes \u2014 but until you\u2019re really affected by it, you really don\u2019t know,\u201d she said. \u201cYou don\u2019t really do the research on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to autismspeaks.org, one in 68 children are diagnosed with autism. Wells said there could be various reasons behind that number, which could be environmental factors, or more available clinicians with the ability to detect the disorder.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to start asking why, what is it? Why are we having so many kids affected by it?\u201d Esquivel-Wright said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be more kids this year diagnosed with autism than there will be cancer or aids, and that\u2019s scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esquivel-Wright hopes to start a club on campus for individuals affected by autism. In one of her classes alone, there are three other individuals who live with a family member diagnosed with autism. She hopes to raise awareness and understanding for the disorder throughout the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to step back and understand that just because somebody may seem absolutely fine, doesn\u2019t mean they are,\u201d she said. \u201cThe awareness isn\u2019t big here, the funding isn\u2019t big here, the people to help you isn\u2019t big here, and we\u2019re trying to shine a light in Dayton because autism doesn\u2019t pick and choose who it wants to affect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next month, Autism Speaks will host a walk advocating autism awareness. It will take place on May 17 at Coney Island. Esquivel-Wright said after the walk is completed, they open up the park for attendees to ride the roller coasters. For more information, visit walknowforautismspeaks.org.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t change my kid for the life of me,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause he has made me see things so differently, and I think that\u2019s the thing \u2014 let them touch your heart, let them show you what they see through their eyes, because it\u2019s completely different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Facing challenges in social situations, engaging in repetitive behaviors and living with a language delay \u2014 these are some of the difficulties individuals with autism face, according to Dr. Mary Wells, professor of Psychology at Sinclair Community College. Although, according to Nursing major Amber Esquivel-Wright, raising an autistic son has its own daily challenges […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-2zc","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/photo-2-copy-copy.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9870"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10139,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9870\/revisions\/10139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}