April is right around the corner which means the flowers will start to bloom after a rain showers and many stores will be asking your support for autism awareness. If you don't know what autism is then I'll be gladly to fill you in. Autism aka autism spectrum disorder is a mental condition that impacts the nervous system, It occurs in early development of childhood. The range and severity of symptoms can vary widely.

The different types of autism are known Asperger's syndrome and Pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), but they are now classified as autism spectrum disorder which include

Behavioral: inappropriate social interaction, poor eye contact, compulsive behavior, impulsivity, repetitive movements, self-harm, or persistent repetition of words or actions.

Developmental: learning disabilities, difficulty with communication or speech delay in a child,

Cognitive: intense interest in a limited number of things or problem paying attention.

Psychological: unaware of others' emotions or depression and having difficulty with social interactions.

Common: anxiety, change in voice, sensitivity to sound, or tic and having obsessive interests

If the word "spectrum" is confusing you here's a guide to help you understand a tiny bit more.

Early recognition, as well as behavioral, educational, and family therapies may reduce symptoms and support development and learning. For autism it's more likely to happen for male children than it is for female children. There's been a recent study in the U.S. and Switzerland that concludes the reason, it comes down to what is known as the “female protective model.” This suggests that girls have a higher tolerance for harmful genetic mutations and therefore require a larger number of them than boys to reach the diagnostic threshold of a developmental disorder. With identical genetic mutations, then, a boy could show symptoms of ASD while a girl could show none.

But because the female mutation threshold is higher, when girls are diagnosed with ASD, they tend to fall on the more severe end of the spectrum.

Researchers believe the same dynamic could explain why more boys are diagnosed with ADHD, intellectual disabilities and schizophrenia. The findings were published Thursday in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

So if you continue to see sponsors in stores for autism awareness and if you want to support then that's wonderful but I'll give you some very helpful advice. If you happened to see blue puzzles the say "Autism Speaks" Do not give them your donation! Why you ask? Well take a look at the flyer below.

As you can see the money that is gathered from the organization is a conundrum. This is based off of the organization's 2010 financials. The graph below has shows the 2014 financials. Have you noticed that everything is going down towards the research? The reason why is because of the advertisements have gone up while the percentage that go towards the family services actually decreased.

If you'd like to learn more information you can read these two articles here and here.

The organization that actually supports people is #WalkInRed because this organization supports Autism acceptance or Autism awareness. Which is are bigger difference. There are other organizations that support the acceptance too like

• The Autistic Self Advocacy Network
• The Autism Women’s Network
• Parenting Autistic Children with Love and Acceptance
• The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism
• ThAutcast
• TASH
• ADAPT

Autism is very different for some people, And there is a saying that goes "If you’ve met one person with Autism, you’ve met one person with Autism.’”

These words were also spoken by “Sesame Street” writer Christine Ferraro told “60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl on. If you have seen this episode then you already know, But if you don't then I'll fill you in. CBS’s “60 Minutes” introduced a new “Sesame Street” Muppet named Julia, and what's special about her is that she has autism. Here are a bunch of stories about her that you can read here, and here.

I hope this helps you understand autism a little more, Just remember that people who have autism are just like everybody else, They just see the world differently and deserve to be happy and feel loved. I should know because I am one of those people.