Dr. Joshua Ambar

April is Autism Acceptance Month.

But as the autistic people and families that I work with every day say, you know, every day is Autism Acceptance Day in my life.

So I'm hoping that, you know, we can keep having these conversations even beyond April.

I was diagnosed with what was then called Asperger's syndrome, coming up on 20 years ago now.

So I have this whole shtick of, I don't do research per se, I do me-search, and if the rest of humanity benefits, all the better for it.

It's very unique to the individual.

There's a saying in the autism community, you've met one person with autism, you have met exactly one person with autism.

We have found that a lot of our research often focuses on parents, on caregivers, on providers, and we have found that they often ignore the autistic person.

at large.

And that's not correct.

Autistic individuals often have a lot to say about their care, about their goals, about what they want to do and what independent living means for them.

And the research literature ignored that really until about 15 years ago when we started to realize that individuals with autism had a lot to say.

They didn't have the tools to say it.

Given the tools, the proper tools to communicate, they will have a lot to say about their care and about what their goals and objectives in life are.

The top line takeaway is that you should interact with your son Mason.

You should ask what he wants.

Don't just let it be imposed by a system around them.

Our school system, through various federal and state laws, rules, and regulations, focuses on what they feel the transition to adulthood should look like.

This means some basic independent living skills.

This means how do we make sure that they can successfully graduate or otherwise separate from secondary education.