Blue Sky's Autism Services held their annual Autism Acceptance Day event at the South Cariboo Visitor's Centre on Saturday, April 12.
The event saw several families come out to learn about autism spectrum disorder, read books that were free to use provided by the Cariboo-Chilcotin Partners for Literacy, who partnered with Blue Sky's to help out with the event. There were also several games that were available to play - as well as a story by Roz MacLean entitled More Than Words, which describes the various ways of communication that aren't necessarily verbal.
"I love that story," said Krysta Stewart, the owner and operator of Blue Sky's Autism Services.
Adilyn Ratcliff, the program coordinator and certified teacher with Blue Sky, said that the book is connected to autism.
"Every child or individual - autistic individual, has their own unique personalities that contribute to the community - and it's a beautiful thing," Ratcliff said.
The story effectively profiles styles of communication such as non-verbal, written, braille, typing, spelling, sign language, as well as pointing and pressing and other forms of expression. On the author's website, the story summarizes the main protagonist Nathan's lesson: "Not only does everyone have something to say, but seeking to understand one another can be the greatest bridge to friendship and belonging."
"It was given to us as a present by one of our former staff - and we thought it fit in beautifully with what we're wanting for autism awareness and acceptance," Ratcliff said about the book.
This year the event was no longer considered to be autism awareness day, but now autism acceptance day. Stewart said that it is due to the fact that the community of 100 Mile House is now much more aware of autism.
"Now the shift has to change to accepting it. Accepting the people for who they are, accepting the children for all of their support needs, accepting that their meltdowns and their differences and their uniqueness present themselves differently, but that's okay," Stewart said.
Blue Sky's supports around 28 families from the South Cariboo and is based out of Lone Butte on Square One Ranch.
"The children get a feeling of belonging, acceptance. It's part of their home as well. They have - we work on all of the skills in a home environment, which makes it easier for them to generalize their skills into their own homes," Stewart explained.
Elke Baechmann, who is the family literacy coordinator with the Cariboo-Chilcotin Partners for Literacy, said they brought some motor activities, such as balance beans and stepping stones for the kids, as well as the free books.
"We have some free books here because we believe that you can never read enough, and should start promoting books for every age group all year round," Baechmann said. She added that it had felt awesome to be at the event.
"I'm always pumped to see the community coming out to supporters and the families and to join us with activities and to learn more about autism and our programs," Baechmann stated.
More Than Words is planned to be showcased at the Parkside Art Gallery as their Storywalk this spring.
