en-us Steam Community RSS Merry Christmas you fucking autists. Fri, 25 Dec 2015 14:30:27 +0000 Maust https://steamcommunity.com/groups/autismspeeks/announcements/detail/904460617537626864 How many of you like to watch the credits of a movie, or are fascinated by light switches? I’m guessing not very many of you, but I love them!<br><br>Bonjour, ni hao, hola, konichiwa, salut, choa chi, my name is Zachary and I have autism. Oh by the way, I’m also learning to speak in different languages.<br><br>When I was very little my family noticed that I did some things differently. I didn’t really like to play a lot with toys. I was more interested in books, letters and the alphabet and everyone was shocked and surprised when I could say the alphabet. That may not seem unusual, but, I was only 14 months old! Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L K J I H G F E D C B A. Oh, I could even say the alphabet backwards. That’s when mom and dad decided to visit a special doctor who told them I had something called “autism”.<br><br>Did you know that autism affects the way the brain works? That means that you see, hear, smell, taste, feel and react to people and situations differently. Sometimes, when I hear loud noises like a baby screaming I cover my ears because it bothers me. But just like you I hate broccoli and Brussels sprouts too, yuck!<br><br>There are 4 times more boys than girls who have autism, and every 20 minutes someone is born with autism somewhere in the world. Autism is something I will have for the rest of my life, it will never go away, but I am learning to deal with it. I can talk, read and write, but some of my friends who have autism can’t talk and that must be really difficult for their families.<br><br>Now that I am older I understand my autism better and it really doesn’t bother me much, in fact, I love my autism. That doesn’t mean I don’t have bad days. I have a lot of them. It is especially difficult for my brother Joshua. Sometimes he gets really frustrated with me and we argue. But I guess a lot of brothers and sisters argue, don’t they? My family is also learning about autism so that we can get along better. In fact, every year we participate in a fund raiser called “Cycle for Autism”. My brother and dad ride their bikes, but I like to walk with my mom. It’s a lot of fun and we raise a lot of money. It is a worthwhile experience.<br><br>I know that I’ll never be able to do a lot of things, but that’s OK. I think I’m pretty lucky, because there are things that I can do very well. For example, I love the piano and I can play a tune by simply listening to the music. My music teacher said that I have a special gift.<br><br>Autism is not who I am, it’s only a small part of me. I just hope people will take the time to get to know and understand me. So, if you ever meet someone with autism I hope you take the time to get to know them. You never know, you may learn something about them and maybe, something about yourself too.<br><br>Well, I hope that you learned a little about autism and me. Thu, 24 Dec 2015 17:49:13 +0000 pm ♥ https://steamcommunity.com/groups/autismspeeks/announcements/detail/904460617534474797