by Kayla Myers, Family Peer Supporter
February 13, 2024
In this article, I am going to give you a different shift in mindset with the upcoming “Prayers for Autism” awareness day. While I am sure the intention with this day was all in good nature, I have some thoughts…….
When my child was diagnosed officially with Autism, we had already been on such a long journey to find answers. My little boy had hit all his milestones, was talking, and was a very different child from what he is now. Months after his second birthday, he quickly regressed. This meant all the words he had learned were gone, he wasn’t my calm and content child anymore, and I had to grieve a child that I still had breathing and walking around in front of me. He just changed, and I will not downplay how hard that was as a mom. Now knowing what a family peer supporter is, I was lucky to stumble across a few women who were helping with services and therapy for him, but they too had children with complex care needs. They helped me so much with my perspective on his diagnosis and helped me focus on the lesson in this drastic life change.
Whoever you believe in or if you don’t believe at all, I feel like that is every individual’s right and they should be able to believe in that without judgment from others. What I will say though, is I don’t love hearing “prayers” to diminish another person's experiences or to disregard people’s abilities as human beings. My son is a very capable human being who is affected by his Autism every day, but he doesn’t need to be prayed for because he is lacking in any way. He is smart, loving, kind, wild, and mysterious. He makes me proud because he is loud and proud of who he is and that is more than most can say for themselves.
My goal with this article is to bring awareness to how things are said and presented. If you believe in God and prayer is how you care for others, that is amazing. If you believe in the creator or spirit, that is beautiful. Caring for others through our beliefs is what makes us all special and unique in this thing we call life. I just hate to see it used in a hurtful way. Bryce doesn’t need to be prayed for because he is lacking or incomplete. He was created and designed to be just what he is. And this should be celebrated. This should be applauded. So, I believe if prayers are being sent to heaven for Bryce they should sound like, “I pray that Bryce remembers how amazing his brain works and remembers to continue to shine as bright as he wants to too.”