By Tanner Kent
MANKATO — Becky Fredericks, like many parents, was blindsided by autism.
When her twin 8-year-old boys were diagnosed with high-functioning autism several years ago, she knew little about the mysterious affliction and knew nothing about where to find help.
For all practical purposes, Fredericks said she and her husband were on their own.
“I didn’t know where to go or what to do,” she said.
So Fredericks and a like-minded group of parents and educators formed the Southern Minnesota Autism Coalition. The coalition, also called SMAC, held its first fundraiser last year and is planning another this weekend (second annual WALKdo event Sunday, Oct. 4, in Mankato). The group is planning an art show at Raydiance in November and a social night at the RedSky Lounge soon.
But SMAC also wants to bring in autism experts who can address the widely varying degrees of autism awareness. This year, they started with Michelle Garcia Winner, a renowned teacher who specializes in teaching social skills to autistic children.
“Our organization is about raising awareness,” said Megan Weerts, an autism teacher in Mankato schools who is also the SMAC chairwoman. “(Winner) did such a good job of speaking to everybody.”
The seminar, which was offered free to parents of children with autism, attracted more than 450 community members, parents and teachers from throughout the region — many with varying levels of autism awareness.
Some know autism only as a mysterious affliction whose origins and causes are still unknown and for which there is no cure. Others know autism only through its statistics: One in every 160 children is affected at birth. For every dollar raised for autism research, about $5 are raised for childhood cancer organizations.
There are the parents who know autism as the syndrome that causes their children to suffer from any number of dozens of possible emotional, behavioral and social challenges, such as: avoiding affection and eye contact, obsessing over seemingly insignificant objects and repeating physical movements like arm-flapping or rocking.
And then there are the educators whose task is to make sense of it all.
“If we can teach students to think, then they can take that thinking anywhere,” said Winner, whose presentation focused on teaching social skills and refining social behavior among autistic children.
But the event wasn’t all about how to educate autistic children. Its other purpose was to educate adults.
Karen Wright, an SMAC member and mother to an autistic son, said her child’s behavior would prompt quizzical, and sometimes nasty, comments from onlookers. Like many parents of autistic children, Wright said she struggled to explain to friends and family that her son’s actions were part of his autism diagnosis.
She said an important aspect of the seminar was teaching parents that autistic children are not acting naughty when having an outburst but are simply “trying to survive” (Winner’s words) inside a mind that does not process the world in the typical ways.
“There are a lot of misperceptions,” she said. “As a parent, there is nothing more frustrating than people commenting on your bad parenting skills.”
For more information about SMAC, visit the group’s Facebook site or visit www.southernminnesotaautismcoalition.org.
For more information about Winner, visit www.socialthinking.com.
