Parents Unite: Blogs on Autism to Read and Follow
April is National Autism Awareness Month, a chance to reflect on and honor inclusion and accomplishments within the autism community. While this is a month of celebration, it may also remind parents of the loneliness that sometimes accompanies raising a child with autism. A parent’s job can feel isolating, but it’s important to remember a large community of parents, each with their own unique set of experiences, indeed exists. Thus, websites geared toward parents of special-needs children can be not just a source of solace but also a fount of education. Below, we’ve gathered a number of websites and blogs that parents can turn to for community, empowerment, and engagement.
With categorized content for educators, parents, employers, and more, Autism Speaks is a voluminous and widely trusted source for those looking for intimate recounts and statistics-driven listicles. With an eclectic mix of posts, Autism Speaks is many parents’ go-to source for the latest news and the most cutting blog entries.
This website, created by the titular boy’s mother Kate, is an enormously personal blog specific to the experiences of Cooper, a child with severe non-verbal autism. While the blog posts are particular to this one child, universal truths emerge from Kate’s upfront and honest accounts that uplift parents of all stripes.
Many blogs want to feel confident and like they are providing all the answers; Starlight and Stories, instead, refreshingly and tenderly offers the questions many new parents will have and affirms the doubts parents may feel when raising children on the spectrum. Blog topics range from practical posts like vacationing with children with autism to more scientifically driven ones such as these children’s distinct speech pathologies.
This British blog shows, despite our differing countries, the shared and unifying truths of mothering a child with autism. The blog also bravely delves into the intersection of autism and mental health while also discussing the mother’s unique experience raising a high-functioning child with autism.
In the online autism-parental community, it’s rare to come across a blog not written by a mother. The Autism Dad turns this trope on its head, presenting a father’s perspective on autism — an oft-unexplored angle and one that is crucial to consider. With podcasts, YouTube videos, blog posts and more, this engaging site offers various forms of content to consider and digest.