Speakout

Marcy Wenning

One mom's story about autism in recognition of Autism Awareness Month

With Autism Awareness Month upon us, I thought it was time to submit yet another story for the general public to read on the subject…after all, this disorder has become not only an epidemic, but a global crisis!

My name is Marcy Wenning and I am Cody's mom. Cody is now thirteen years old. After many struggles, he was diagnosed with autism at 3 years old. We (my husband and 2 typical children) spent the next couple of years learning about autism, about therapies, about how to get these therapies. Because it used to be when you got this devastating disorder you were left to defend for your child by yourself!

Cody had little to no eye contact, no language and he was not pointing. He presented just about ALL of the stereotypical characteristics one does associate with autism, yet it still took us years to get a diagnosis. [Now many people are able to have their child diagnosed as early as 6 months old - visit www. autismspeaks.org to learn how to recognize the early signs.] Early diagnosis and interventions have a huge impact on a child's future.

Once we got the schooling and therapies under control (for the moment), we realized how little money was going into research to find the causes, treatments, and preventions so we added a new mission. To raise funds for research in Cody's name. Since 2001, "Cody's Clan" has raised over $500,000 for autism research and we have dedicated ourselves to support organizations in search of answers.

Cody's Clan began raising money for the National Alliance for Autism Research [NAAR], a non-profit organization that was focused primarily on funding research. In February of 2006 NAAR merged with newly founded Autism Speaks and our mission grew to focus not only on the research but on the importance of awareness and family support.

Autism Speaks is still growing as we just completed a merger with yet another group - Cure Autism Now [CAN] and it will be a result of these great organizations - now one - that we will accomplish great things for the autism community.

The Mission?

…To change the future for all who struggle with autism spectrum disorders. Autism Speaks is dedicated to funding global biomedical research into the causes, prevention, treatments, and cure for autism; to raising public awareness about autism and its effects on individuals, families, and society; and to bringing hope to all who deal with the hardships of this disorder. We are committed to raising the funds necessary to support these goals.

We aim to bring the autism community together as one strong voice to urge the government and private sector to listen to our concerns and take action to address this urgent global health crisis. It is our firm belief that, working together, we will find the missing pieces of the puzzle. Autism Speaks. It's time to listen.

Families of children with special needs struggle in so many ways. We struggle at home - trying to survive the daily grind… facing and managing our children, supporting siblings, finding time for our spouses (if we still have them as the divorce rate among families with children with special needs is over 80%), and finding time for ourselves.

We also struggle in the community as we must learn to re-charge so that we can effectively advocate for our child, challenge the educators, [at times] fight to get what our children need, write letters seeking support, be persistent - never settling for less than our child needs and most importantly - we must remain hopeful. We also must advocate for ourselves to find the means to support the cost of services, treatments, interventions and therapies as they are most often NOT covered by insurance.

Cody has made us better people, we are more understanding, patient and tolerant. He has taught us what working hard truly means. It takes so much for Cody to master the simplest task. But most of all, he shows us the most unconditional love. We will never here the words, "I Love You" but we see it in the way he lights up when we enter a room!

The next time you see our ad council campaign - one of our many public service announcements regarding autism and the devastating and newly published statistics of 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder… it will be your time to listen.

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March Wenning is an Ashburnham resident. She is a volunteer with Autism Speaks and serves as the Director for the New England Chapter of the Board. She is a mother of three. She can be reached at mwenning@cushing.org.