Ariella Moon: autistic children

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

E.A. West and 7 Myths about Autism

Yesterday's blog featured E.A. West's new Young Adult novel, DIFFERENT

Today, West returns to discuss

7 Myths about Autism

A person with autism can never improve.

Therapies exist to assist autistic with daily life skills, social skills, job skills, and many other areas of life that may be impaired by autism. Age can also bring improvement, as well as learning from peers, studying human behavior, and developing the coping mechanisms necessary to participate in normal daily life.

A person with autism can be cured with the right therapies.

While the right therapies can help an individual live a more normal life, cure isn’t possible. Autism is a neurological difference, which means the autistic brain is wired differently than the normal brain. The right therapies can help rewire the brain to a certain extent, but differences will always exist.

Early intervention is the only hope a child with autism has.

Early intervention does help a tremendous amount, but even if you miss that window of time, your child can still make improvements with the right assistance.

Autism is caused by vaccines.

This myth has been disproved by more than one study with strong evidence. The man who started the theory by manipulating the results of a study he conducted has admitted that his conclusions weren’t accurate and had no evidence to back them up, yet the myth of autism being caused by vaccines continues to persist.

Only children are autistic.

People seem to forget that autistic children grow up. Autism is a lifelong disorder, meaning a person can’t grow out of it. It doesn’t magically disappear when the child becomes an adult.

All autistics are great at math and science.

While many autistics do seem to do well in math and science, many more are drawn to the arts. Just like with any group of people, a wide range of abilities and interests exist among people on the autism spectrum.

Autistics aren’t creative or good at playing make believe.

Autistics are just as creative as anyone else, but they may have trouble expressing their creativity in a normal manner. From an observer’s perspective, it may appear that the autistic child is just sitting and staring blankly at a wall, but inside the mind of the autistic there may be a grand adventure playing out that they are fully participating in. Since it’s all internal, however, many people wrongly assume that children on the autism spectrum are incapable of playing make believe.

About E.A. West:

E.A. West, award-winning author of sweet and inspirational romance, is a lifelong lover of books and storytelling. In high school, she picked up her pen in a creative writing class and hasn’t laid it down yet. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys reading, knitting, and crocheting. She lives in Indiana with her family and a small zoo of pets.

Where to Find E.A. West:

Website: http://eawest.mcphitty.com

Blog: http://thewestcorner.wordpress.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/EA-West/34280264617

Twitter: http://twitter.com/eawest

Google+: http://plus.google.com/107709864908331978411/posts

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/authoreawest

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/eawest

Buy Links for Different

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Different-E-West-ebook/dp/B00M0E4ZU0

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1119984134?ean=2940149685615

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/460703

Monday, August 4, 2014

DIFFERENT an Intriguing Young Adult Novel about Autism

The Spotlight on Summer Reading continues with:

DIFFERENT

Anything can happen when the rules change.

Jezebel Smith is different. She can’t talk, she doesn’t look like anyone in her family, and no matter what she does it’s always the wrong thing. God accepts her for who she is, but He’s the only one who does. Then she finds an unconscious man in her favorite cave, and her life is turned upside down. New people and new rules collide with the old, leaving Jezebel unsure of which set of rules apply to her life. When the strangers in town attempt to help her out of the nightmare she’s grown up in, it promises to change her life forever.

Excerpt #1:

The distant drip of water echoed off the rocky walls as Jezebel Smith wandered through her cave. Pungent fumes from her kerosene lantern stung her nose, and she wished for a flashlight. But her family would miss a flashlight. They never noticed when she took the old lantern from the barn.

Turning her face away from the lantern, she caught a whiff of the familiar scent of the rocks around her. She loved the fresh, earthy smell of her cave. Through countless hours of careful practice, her hiking boots barely produced a whisper on the bumpy path leading to her special cavern. If she swung the lantern on its creaky handle, however, she could fill the cave with a creepy echo that reminded her of Halloween.

She passed through an opening in the wall and entered a large cavern with several ledges in one end. As she approached the lowest ledge, the glow from her lantern touched an unfamiliar lump on the floor below the rocky shelf and she froze. She knew every inch of this cavern — every rock, ledge, and bump in the floor. No one ever came here. Nothing ever changed unless she changed it. The cave was the only thing she could count on to always stay the same.

This time, however, there was something new. The cave had broken its own rules, adding a boulder where one didn’t belong. She crept toward it, fighting tears of hurt that the cave would trick her like everyone else, and the golden light of her lantern revealed it wasn’t a boulder after all — it was the still form of a man. Her pulse pounded in her ears, so loud it threatened to drown out her own thoughts. Where had he come from? Why wasn’t he moving? Her heart skipped a beat. Was he dead?

Excerpt #2:

Fear shivered through her that he was sleeping so much. One of her brothers had fallen out of a tree once and hit his head, and the doctor said they had to keep him from falling asleep for a while. Jezebel didn’t know if falling off a ledge and hitting his head made the man have to stay awake or not.

After worrying for a while longer, she finally decided she’d have to risk a beating from her parents and go get the doctor. She didn’t know if he’d come, but she had to try. Daniel was the only person to ever treat her kindly, and he needed help.

She put a couple more sticks on the fire so it would keep burning while she was gone, and then she lit the lantern and headed out of the cavern. As she neared the cave entrance, the flame went out. She slowed her steps and followed the faint glow of daylight. Hopefully the doctor had a flashlight. When she stepped into the woods, she set the lantern by the cave entrance and ran toward town. She practiced saying Daniel’s name while she ran, praying the doctor would come if she told him the injured man’s name.

As she neared the edge of town, she slowed down to catch her breath. She hesitantly stepped onto the main road, terrified at the thought of trying to convince the doctor to go with her. She’d learned a long time ago that no one believed her about anything, and since she couldn’t talk, people didn’t understand what she tried to tell them anyway.

A lot of strange cars and people clogged the main street through town, and Jezebel wondered who they were. Unless Reverend Brown was holding one of his many revivals, the town rarely had many visitors. As she continued toward the doctor’s office, a woman carrying a stack of papers walked toward her with a smile. Jezebel stopped, her mind whirling with uncertainty, and the woman handed her a paper.

“We’re looking for this man. He went hiking in this area a couple of days ago and didn’t come back.”

Jezebel studied the sheet in her hands, and her heart skipped a beat. A picture of Daniel stared back, and some words had been printed across the bottom in black ink. She pointed to the photo. “D-Dan... Daniel.”

“That’s right, his name is Daniel,” the woman said, her tone changing a little. “Have you seen him?”

Jezebel nodded and looked back the way she’d come. “C-c-cave.”

“You saw him in a cave?”

She nodded again, excitement rushing through her. For the first time in her life, someone understood what she tried to say. She touched the photograph on the paper, indicating where the cut on Daniel’s head was. Before she could see if the woman understood, she heard her older brother spit out her name. She cringed and felt herself shriveling inside.

Buy Links: