WELCOME!
Today I'm very lucky to be a part of a Blog Hop that is very personal to me.
Author RJ Scott's Autism Awareness Blog!
The theme of this years blog hop is animals. Hooray! I love animals.
I hope you will learn some interesting facts about Autism and the incredible link to animals, plus you'll meet some pretty amazing Authors and maybe win a prize or two.
So read on my friends!
Autism Awareness Factoid
When used as part of a child’s therapy, Service Dogs for children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders may: create opportunities to learn responsibility, empathy, socialization, and communication development.
When I was researching what factoid I wanted to share about Animals and their connection to helping individuals on the Autism Spectrum, many sites said how it 'could' help or 'may' help. I have to say this really surprised me because I've seen first hand how interaction with animals has helped my son, M.
I grew up with dogs. All sorts actually, purebreds, mutt's, strays, big dogs and little yappers. Sometimes, my house was a temporary home, and sometimes we had playdates and slumber parties for friends dogs that had wandered over during the day or night.
There was only one time that I lived without a dog, it was when I first moved out west. It was strange. I felt like I was missing something, like a connection to someone, which was odd because I wasn't alone, I had my boyfriend, my brother and friends. I couldn't figure out what it was until my boyfriend got what turned out to our first dog together. And when that furry little mutt came home, it felt as though a vacant spot somewhere inside me was suddenly filled.
I know, that was super sappy. But, that's what happened!
There was only one time that I lived without a dog, it was when I first moved out west. It was strange. I felt like I was missing something, like a connection to someone, which was odd because I wasn't alone, I had my boyfriend, my brother and friends. I couldn't figure out what it was until my boyfriend got what turned out to our first dog together. And when that furry little mutt came home, it felt as though a vacant spot somewhere inside me was suddenly filled.
I know, that was super sappy. But, that's what happened!
The affect on M hasn't been quite the same because there has always been a dog in his life. So he doesn't know anything else. And we never set out to have dogs to help M, it just sort of happen naturally.
Soooo, I decided to ask him while I was researching,
Soooo, I decided to ask him while I was researching,
"Do you feel like you have a connection to the dogs?"
In a typical 13 year old boy response, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "No."
I burst out laughing, I couldn't help it.
The kid cracks me up.
The kid cracks me up.
Then I asked him what he remembers about our dogs that we have lost, a furry Japanese Akita and a sweet Great Pyrenees mix. A big smile spread across his face
I questioned his answer of "no."
He laughed and shrugged again, "I guess I do." LOL
We now have two German Shepherds, who we have nicknamed, 'Baby and the Beast'. If you have a GSD then you already know the connection these dogs have to their humans, but the connection they have to their human children is...magical. I'm not sure how or why it happens, but these dogs have help M become more sociable ( which is a big one for him because of his hearing impairment ). When I started walking him to school with the Beast, kids would ask to pet Beast and asked questions and M would begin chatting away. Man, I loved that!
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| Baby supervising school work. |
When we got Baby, his teacher told us in a parent-teacher interview how M came to school and told the class about his new puppy and what type of breed she was, plus the history of the breed. This is a kid that doesn't go out of his way to share personal info or talk out in class unless he has too, but he did that on his own without anybody prompting him. Woohoo!
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| TV time with Baby |
He's also learned a sense of responsibility. He knew from a very young age that the dogs need to go 'out', and both M and his sister G share the responsibility of feeding them, as well as exercising them. And whether or not he wants it, the dogs will literally hang out with him and his sister. They really don't have a choice.
So as you see, just as M said, he has no connection at all with our dogs...NOT!!! LOL
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| Napping after a day at the beach. |
As for the doctors and specialists that are still slapping that 'could' help or 'may' help into their research, I guess we'll have to be patience and wait for them to catch up to the rest of us.
Better hurry up boys! You're missing out on how magnificent the connection between animals and individuals with ASD or...just humans in general, truly is.
So there you have it, an interesting and informative Autism factoid, plus a little story about my experiences.
If you would like to learn more check out the Autism Speaks Canada website at http://www.autismspeaks.ca/
Kerry Magro
http://kerrymagro.com/68-things-to-know-about-autism-for-autism-awareness-month
***ENTER TO WIN!!!***
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| Erotic Paranormal Romance |
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| Erotic Time Travel Romance |
Good luck!
Cheers,
Nancy
Cheers,
Nancy
