Autism Twitter Day ~ A Day to Promote Postive Autism Awareness

MiaHysteria — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:58:38 -0600

In June of 1998, her oldest son was diagnosed with autism. Less than a year later, in April of 1999, her younger son was diagnosed with the same. They are on opposite ends of the spectrum; one is non-verbal, the other is higher functioning. Not only was she was hit with something most parents never experience, she was hit with it twice and with the highest of extremes.

As a single mother, Bonnie Sayers’ the past 10 years have been filled daily with occupational therapy; feeding, speech, sensory and floor therapies; Adaptive PE; extra work on social skills; home schooling and being a home health care worker through the State of California for her non-verbal son. Through grants the boys are able to attend summer day camp to further work on daily living skills, cooking, personal hygiene and social skills. The knowledge that her experiences have afforded her is boundless. She has been writing about these experiences for 10 years, 3 years on a site and on her own blog for approximately 6 months. She already has a following on her blog of more than 1882 people. She uses Twitter as well, with a following of almost 1900 fellow tweeters.

With her knowledge, a community of support that surrounds her, and her insight into the issues of autism, she noticed that there was growing need for “clarification” on what the faces of autism look like. With celebrities such as Jenny McCarthy “curing” her son and the vaccine controversies, Bonnie wanted to have a forum where there could be a day dedicated to promoting positive autism awareness. So, in November, just 1 short month ago, Bonnie Sayers began the
painstaking organization of Autism Twitter Day.

The best way to describe the day, other than a day to promote positive awareness, is a day where twitterers can register their twitter IDs (124 already) to follow the conversations between panel members and others in the twitter community who have children with autism, work with autistic children, are diagnosed themselves, or are otherwise interested in real information, discussions and experiences related to autism. This is scheduled to happen at various times during the day (9am PST, 10am PST, 12:30pm PST and 8pm PST) tomorrow, December 16, 2008.

As if autism tweets weren’t enough, Bonnie has organized over 50 prize donors with over 75 prizes for the day. These include:

· www.foodshouldtastegood.com
who is donating gluten free snacks, sweet potato was a hit with my son and his classroom, including aide and teacher

· www.modelmekids.com
who is donating social skills DVDs – we have one of the DVDs and good info for kids going into Middle school, kids are modeling appropriate behavior at school

· www.weieast.com/wehelp
who is donating cosmetic kit – owner of Wei East has son with autism, donating proceeds of this special kit, wonderful hand cream

· www.unos.com
who is donating 4 $25 gift cards, they have gluten free menu they have been involved in autism walks across the country

· www.aisforautism.net
two books donated by author who works with kids on the spectrum in schools, one book about a girl with the latest one on a boy in Middle school

· www.swngsetmamas.com
one of these mamas has a daughter with autism and is also going to tweet on music therapy, inclusion at schools and sign language. They are donating DVDs and CDs

· www.kidsdreamgym.com
who is donating a childrens hammock that can be installed indoors or
outdoors. This is great for kids who have sensory issues.

· www.cpschallenge.com
they are donating a one year subscription to their online site, challenge software and this is open for international, Canada and US members.

· www.kubit2me.com
they are donating these fun games that are geared for several age groups, we have one as well.

· www.coromega.com
they are donating three boxes that contain 30 squeezers in three flavors – orange, lemon line and orange chocolate. They are Omega-3 supplements that can be squeezed into the mouth, placed on spoon or even hidden in yogurt.

If you are interested in following along, you can input the #ASD hash tag in www.summize.com and this will show the flow of the tweets on Autism Twitter Day (ATD). As long as you are already registered with ATD and Twitter, you can reply and tweet your thoughts and concerns around autism. Be sure to use #ASD at the end of the tweet so that it goes into the summize page as well.

What will be the outcome of Autism Twitter Day? An informed discussion on how autism affects our children, ourselves, our lives as a society; clear honest information on what autism may mean to any specific individual; a sharing of experiences,frustrations and support. Bonnie’s hope is “that the general public know families out there exist with all degrees of autism and we all do not follow the same methods to living with autism as the celebrities out in the media saying insulting things about our kids and autism in general. There is more than one face to place on the autism spectrum; this is the twitter side”.

Related Links:

http://autismfamiily.blogspot.com

http://autismspectrumdisorders.bellaonline.com

http://www.epinions.com/user-bonniesayers

http://bonniesayers.blogspot.com

http://www.bellaonline.com/site/autismspectrumdisorders

http://www.foodiemama.com

http://www.blissfullydomestic.com

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Autism Twitter Day ~ A Day to Promote Postive Autism Awareness