Putnam County Middle School hosted Autism Acceptance Week during the week of April 4.
In 1972, the Autism Society launched the first annual National Autistic Children’s week, which evolved into Autism Acceptance Month (AAM). World Autism Day was on April 2, 2022 so the week long event was hosted starting the first school day after World Autism Day. According to the Autism Society, the prevalence of autism in the United States has risen from one in 125 children in 2010 to one in 54 in 2020.
The week was split into different themes that celebrated aspects of Autism. April 4 was Magnificent Minds Monday where students celebrated minds working differently by wearing a fun hat or wild hair. April 5 was Neurodivergent Tuesday to celebrate the diverse spectrum of Autism. Students were able to wear rainbow or tie dye to represent this diversity through a spectrum of color.
April 6 was “What is your passion Wednesday?” to celebrate the aspect of Autism that focuses on topics of interest. Students were allowed to dress in a way that showed passion for something they loved. April 7 was Autism Inclusion Day. Students wore red or gold to show their acceptance of Autistic people. Finally, April 8 was Sensory Day/Spirit Friday. Students were able to wear clothes to show off school spirit and taught about the sensory needs that come with Autism.
Annie Bollen and Jenna Davis, educators at PCMS, wrote to the Eatonton Messenger about the background of Autism Awareness week. According to them, April was chosen because it is one of two months that start with “A” for Autism, and because it holds the hope of a blooming spring season.
“Autistic people have hope that both the issues and challenges that accompany their autism will be improved in the future, as well as hope that the challenges presented by interacting with the typical community will improve with more awareness and acceptance of the disorder,” wrote Bollen and Davis.
Autism is a neurological disorder that can create difficulties in communication, sensory differences or processing differences that make it difficult for autistic individuals to maneuver in society. Autism Awareness Month was created in an attempt to educate the public on what autism is, what it means as a diagnosis and how it can affect those who have it to help these individuals.
“Our goal for Autism Acceptance week at the middle school is not to bring awareness to the differences of autistic people from neurotypical people, but to help our school community become more aware of how open we are to responding respectfully to those who are different from us in our everyday lives,” wrote Bollen and Davis.
Bollen and Davis expressed their want for the students to learn about inclusion because it is such an important topic for autistic students. They want to remind everyone that words can have power and encouragement that can guide others to be respectful, kind and more to those around them.
“As we improve our ability to include children with many different needs into classes, we remember our tendency as a society to see people only as worthy as how much they can provide into a community and want to continue to move towards accepting and including people as they are, not as what they are able to do,” wrote Bollen and Davis. “When we accept autistic people “as-is”, we make space for them to be accepted as important parts of our classes and lives.”
Each day created in Autism Acceptance Week reflects these ideals of these educators at PCMS and the loving hearts that they have for their students who are on the spectrum.
“We wanted to be sure that our school builds a culture that realizes that autistic people need us to be more aware of ourselves, our attitudes and wants to be an active part of a school that believes and practices true inclusion of all students into one community,” wrote Bollen and Davis.