October 1, 2024 • 35 mins
Join us as we welcome the remarkable Tamika Lechee Morales, founder of the Autism Hero Project. Born from her personal journey with her son's autism and ADHD diagnosis, Tamika's nonprofit has been a beacon of hope since 2015. Originally focusing on providing essential medical insurance in Illinois, the Autism Hero Project has grown to include educational scholarships, inclusive events, and first responder training. Tamika opens up about the raw and emotional process of accepting her son's diagnosis and shares how building a supportive community has been crucial.
We'll also tackle the real-life challenges and triumphs of raising a neurodiverse child. From transitioning between school stages to the importance of self-regulation and acceptance, we discuss it all. Hear firsthand about impactful initiatives like Autism Acceptance Week and practical strategies such as noise-canceling headphones for public outings. This episode is a heartfelt celebration of neurodiversity and underscores the necessity for empathy, understanding, and celebrating the unique qualities of autistic individuals. Don't miss this powerful conversation!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Welcome to the SJ Child Show, where a little bit
of knowledge can turn fear intounderstanding.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Enjoy the show.
Here we are.
We have some guests.
I'm guessing is it SJ Childs inthe back.
If she gives us the thumbs up,you know we're going to bring
Sarah to save us Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Oh, I'm so excited to see you guys.
We're excited to see you too.
Oh, it's so cool.
I can't wait to come and seeyou in person.
Yeah, maybe next year SJChild's Tour.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
SJ Child's Tour Coming to Pittsburgh 2025.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
We'll just start saying it and then she's going
to be like darn it, now I haveto.
Now, right?
No, and I wish I would havethought of this earlier.
I kind of laughed in my headthat I should have sent you guys
I Know Sarah shirts, because Ihave this joke with Phil and he
was asking people I want to comevisit this state this day.
And then I knew a bunch ofpeople and I was like Phil, you
(01:13):
should just wear an I Know Sarahshirt and then you can connect
with everyone.
I love that.
I love that they worn it.
I Know Sarah, yay.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Is Sarah pronounced like the A-H in Utah?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh, there's no H needed, no extra letter needed
here.
Thank you very much.
Raw Extra, no extra needed.
I was trying to make a Utah joke, well, and I'm excited I have a
wonderful guest that I broughttoday.
Uh, well, and I'm excited, Ihave a wonderful guest that I
brought today and she's doingamazing things in that wonderful
you know niche that I like tospeak on and that's the autistic
(01:52):
community.
So, uh, you're gonna love her.
She's doing amazing things andhelping thousands, maybe
millions of families.
Who knows?
It's just the things and thepeople we meet.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
We just spent 10 minutes plugging your event and
I see the banner behind you, theone in 36 mix virtual autism
summit.
I know that comes out.
Is that August, every August?
Is that when you're usually?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
doing that.
You know, Jeff, I can't evenbelieve I did it without you.
I mean, it was heartbreaking ina way.
At the same time it waswonderful.
But we did have a couple ofdays.
But I got a really great reviewafterwards because there were a
couple technical things andthey said, not even technical
difficulties could let thefabulous Sarah not put on a show
(02:39):
.
And I was like, oh, thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
And is the guest backstage?
Is there another guest?
She's ready.
Get the thumbs up, Carolyn.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Oh, there we go.
Give a thumbs up, Tamika.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I was born ready.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, welcome to the podcast theater inadooty on
Corbett Street in downtownTarentum.
We're so glad to have the SJChild Show.
We're going to go ahead andwhen we wrap up here, we're
going to put up your speakercard and we'll get off stage and
then when we come back, you'refree to start.
We'll have a nice clean editfor you whenever we go to cut
this all up.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Love it.
Thanks guys.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Welcome everybody.
It's the SJ Child.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Show.
Let's go to that speaker card.
Hello, oh, thank you so muchfor joining me here today,
especially the audience and theviewers, but and my incredible
guest, who this is our time,first time getting together like
(03:52):
this, and I always find thatthis is my favorite way to meet
someone and connect to someoneis that authentic, organic,
getting to know you session kindof kind of thing.
So thank you I'm.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
We've been wanting to do this for I don't know how
many years now, but we wefinally have made it happen, so
I'm excited yes, chase eachother down just at the right
moment.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
love it well.
I'm sj child sarah bradford.
I host the SJ Child Showpodcast, where I talk about and
speak to neurodiverseindividuals and families,
experts all sorts, and we diveinto the world of neurodiversity
, education, parenting.
(04:37):
And today I have a reallyspecial guest.
This is Tamika, and I've beenfollowing her journey, like she
said, for a few years now aswell, and it's always amazing
when you are able to connectwith people in the same space
and feel that, just like yousaid, you were born ready.
(04:59):
You have this passion, thisdrive.
Let us get to know more aboutyou and get to know you better.
Please introduce yourself andtell us a little bit about why
you're here today.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Okay, so my name is Tamika Lachey Morales and I run
an amazing nonprofitorganization After my own heart.
I always say it's called theAutism Hero Project, and the
genesis behind it was myautistic son.
Back in 2015, june 4th 2015,you know, you never forget those
(05:33):
important dates my son wasdiagnosed with autism spectrum
disorder and ADHD and two yearslater, when I kind of say that I
got to all the level and stagesof grief, I came into
acceptance and I started anonprofit and the Autism Hero
(05:56):
Project does so many greatthings.
We started out in OnePillar,which was purchasing medical
insurance for children on theautism spectrum, because we
started at first in the state ofIllinois and unfortunately,
back then the state of Illinoisdidn't basically give families
on Medicaid access to autismtherapies, specifically applied
(06:19):
behavior analysis, aba therapyand I just thought it was
honestly criminal that you knowevery children's journal, every
doctor, every psychologist,everyone is saying you know
these are the therapies yourchild needs, this is the gold
standard therapy.
But you know I was fortunate Ihad a job, medical insurance
that covered it, but so manyfamilies didn't and you know, so
(06:42):
it was a barrier and so wedecided to be that financial
bridge to cover, you know,children on the autism spectrum
who didn't have access to allthe therapies that we believe
they needed to thrive and striveand reach their full potential.
(07:06):
We have expanded so much where,a couple years back, we started
doing education scholarships,because we know that autistic
children are going to becomeautistic adults and we know that
there's this huge cliff at theage of 22 where there's such a
lack of services out there, andso we started giving out
education scholarships that arenot just for university, because
we know not all of our childrenthrive in, you know, the
college bound but they have, youknow, whether it's culinary or
(07:29):
vocational or cybersecurity, orthere's so many other lanes.
You know arts and theater thatour children really you know
hyper focus and do amazingthings, and so we didn't want to
limit it to just university.
So these higher educationgrants are just for any adult
who's looking to honestly find atalent or hone in on something
(07:52):
that they love, a passion thatthey have, and be able to close
that unemployment gap that ourautistic you know families have,
where it's 80 to 85% ofunderemployment or unemployment
rates, for you know our autisticindividuals, and so we wanted
to help close that gap and we doa whole lot of inclusive events
(08:14):
, raise a whole lot of autismawareness.
We believe you should be ableto come as you are, whether
that's theater, shows.
So we, you know, we honestlysponsor sensory theater.
We sponsor basketball Windy CityBulls out of Chicago.
Obviously.
We, you know baseball games,sports events, holiday events,
(08:35):
inclusive events.
And then over the last fouryears almost five now we've also
been sponsoring first respondertraining and that has become a
huge pillar of ours paying tosponsor police departments and
hospitals and fire departmentsto get trained on how to deal
with our population anddeescalate and prevent crises,
(08:57):
and so yeah, so we've done a lotin seven years, lots of
projects and so many familiesimpacted by all of these efforts
put in.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
You know, it really all does start with that
experience that you have at home, and you see that struggle that
you're having, and you knowthat other families don't even
know how to look for help or howto ask for help, and it's
heartbreaking to think that, andthat's why I love that we're
both doing these amazingcommunity service projects, if
(09:34):
you will, to really just helplike not only help the community
, raise their awareness, buthelp create a place that we can
send our children to someday.
100% Right, and that reallyembodies the special kind of
(09:54):
like perception that you need tohave to be with them, and I
think that that's important tokind of clarify for people is
that it all comes down to yourperception like where are you
going to give in your heart,your mind, whatever the space to
learn more, become moreeducated and more um, like you
(10:18):
said it, it takes time to totake that acceptance, um journey
and um it comes.
It comes with so many ups anddowns, and there is nothing
better, though, than finding acommunity, finding your
community.
What did you?
There must be some kind of likeinspiration, or where did you
(10:40):
maybe find some community thathelped you understand you were
not alone.
I know I didn't.
I didn't mean to bring thetissue box people.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
But you know it's funny, my vice president and I
we just released a video at ourgala.
Every year we I kind of Iproduced this documentary of
like where we're at and whatwe've been able to accomplish in
the year.
And it's funny because weimmediately talked about like
when we got our diagnosis and soshe was fortunate that she had
(11:22):
a lot of friends that hadchildren on the spectrum, so she
immediately had a village likeshe had her tribe and that's so
important right when I honestlyonly knew one person and that
one person didn't even live inthe same state, who was a friend
of mine, but she was the firstperson I called eventually when
I could talk, right, and so Iactually I created my village.
(11:48):
That's really what I did.
And it's funny because we werejust talking about this story,
because I wrote a book.
I've written a few book, youknow kind of writings in this
space and this is my last book,called For the Love of Autism,
and it has Dr Temple Grandin, ithas Dr Carrie Magro, eileen Lam
(12:12):
, andrew Arbo, it has all thesefamous autistic influencers and
but what's funny is my tribe wasimmediately my closest friends
and it took me almost two yearsto tell our family that we had
an autistic child, like aboutclosest friends.
And it took me to almost twoyears to tell our family that we
had an autistic child, likeabout the diagnosis, and it took
me you know that's almost thatlong to even tell my closest
(12:34):
friends.
I just, I just couldn't liketalk about it, like without
getting so emotional.
And so we were just laughingbecause we started a book club
with this with our church groupand we were just kind of
recounting the story, how shewas telling them that it was
that the way that we all, thatthey had all found out was
(12:54):
because I put a PowerPointpresentation together.
That's like the teacher in me,because I am, I'm a teacher, I'm
an entrepreneur, but I put thisPowerPoint presentation
together because I figured ittook me so long to wrap my head
around it that I didn't wantthem to take two years to do
(13:15):
that presentation I talked about, you know the data, the
prevalence, you know how, youknow what are the symptoms, the
signs, what they believe theresearch shows, but really how
to support you know my legendarykid and myself, and it was such
(13:36):
an emotional like all of uswere all together and they
became my immediate tribe.
They were the first ones thatand none of them had an autistic
child.
But I was taking classes thatnight because I was in the
middle of beyond my master'sdegree and doing all this stuff,
and they would babysit, theywere just like everything to me
(13:58):
and then eventually, through myson's therapies, they had
support groups.
Eventually, through my son'stherapies, they had support
groups and then I would go tothem and honestly, in the
beginning I was like, ok, it wasamazing to hear, like obviously
, where my child was and youknow what I could expect.
But at the same time itactually was killing my soul to
(14:22):
hear some of these stories thatI could only take so much right,
because I'm taking on my ownstuff.
But then, you know, I felt likean empath and I was taking on
their stuff and I wanted to helpeverybody and it was like like
my husband is like Tamika, thisis very unhealthy for you, like
I just couldn't.
I just couldn't like be allthings to all people and my own
(14:47):
self-care was kind of going outthe window and and eventually,
you know, we I kind of build my,my community through the Autism
Hero Project.
The more stuff we did, the morefamilies came and they shared
theirs and we, honestly, thebeauty about our nonprofit is
that so many of our familieshave become our closest friends.
(15:08):
Yeah, and we know that we cancall each other and you know we
can be there for one another andwe can.
You know, like our latest video, one of the moms say you know,
you call one of them up andwe're like immediately, do you
need tequila?
Do we need to go beat somebodyup?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Like, do we just need to go get some nanny patties,
Like what?
Speaker 3 (15:27):
do we need to go?
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Absolutely.
I love that.
It really is so important thatyou and you know kind of that.
You and you know kind of, asyou had said.
It's like this isolatingjourney.
At the very beginning I wasreally lucky.
My husband had a sister withDown syndrome, so he had already
grown up in this like specialmind space, this way to treat
(15:53):
special, you know, people withwith Down syndrome and on autism
, and so that was nice.
I mean, he didn't know,obviously, how to be a dad to an
autistic son, so that was to.
It takes just a journey oftrial and error and living.
But what a beautiful journeyit's become.
And since then, you know, ourwhole family has received our,
(16:14):
our diagnoses and we understandthat we're all on the spectrum
in our family and that reallybrought us close together,
closer than I could have everimagined or expected, especially
with my husband, when we bothkind of were able to say, wow,
(16:34):
this 20 year friendship is justeven more than that.
It is this like a meeting ofminds that just was meant to be
and I feel that way about like,about you and about the
connections that I find likekindred spirits.
You know, we all go throughthis journey and while we're at
this process, it feels so lonelyand so scary and so sad, and
(16:56):
it's not until some years later,when we can reflect and when we
meet people like each otherthat we're like oh yes, this is
it.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
That's exactly what I wrote about when we wrote about
For the Love of Autism.
I mean, these are honest, rawstories from autistics parents,
mothers, fathers because there'ssuch a lack of men speaking
about their, you know, journeyand how they're navigating this
for themselves.
But you know sibling stories.
I mean we have it all in hereAutistic interpretations.
(17:28):
They have such an amazingfollowing and they're just so
amazing to to Jesse, jessica,their daughter and sister,
daughter and sister.
And so it's just been, honestlyit's.
I always say that, like becausewe're so busy, focused, like as
a, as a system, right, andthere's so much systematic
change that needs to happen, butbecause people are just so
(17:49):
focused on the milestones andthe perceived timelines that
people should meet thesemilestones, right, the fact is
that there is so much beauty inautism but we're so focused in
what the world has deemed asdeficiencies, right, these
timelines, versus you know thatI think they're just not living
(18:14):
in the present to see and feelthe beauty of what is right in
front of their eyes.
And it's funny because when youlook at neurotypicals and you
see all the movies and you seeall these social, you know
influencers on social media, andyou see all these people and
everybody's trying to doeverything possible to stand out
, right, yeah, to be unique andto be different.
(18:37):
And yet our own children don'teven need to do that.
They're just, you know,different that way, and yet they
just want to fit in and theydon't want to be standing out.
It's like the whole oppositeand I'm like you know why?
Fit in when you can stand out,right, and it's like you don't
need to change.
It's not you, my love, whoneeds to change.
(18:58):
It's not you.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
I love that.
In fact, I do these dailytoday's missions on my Facebook
page every day that just kind ofgive everyone a little bit of
quote of a day to try to live by.
I see them every day I say Ilove it, I love it.
The other day, I think, youknow, be yourself, they'll
adjust Just.
And the other day, I think wasyou know, be yourself, they'll
adjust, just be you, they'lladjust Absolutely, and that's it
(19:22):
.
That's just it.
And you know, I think we allthrough experience kinds of of
feats, then we support them inthe best way we can, by
supporting their strengths, by,you know, lifting them up, by
(19:44):
their, um, love of what they,what they love to do, what, what
are some things, some joy, if,if we can, if you don't mind
talking about your son a littlebit.
What are some things that heloves?
What are his special interests?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
So I have to say Legend is really funny, like
sarcastically funny, and just he, just he loves you know he's a
YouTube freak, right, so heloves YouTube.
You know the typical thingsthat boys his age teenagers,
early teenagers like they likeyou know gaming and they like
(20:21):
YouTube, and you know he'sreally no different in that
aspect we just have to kind ofcontrol how many hours but he's
really funny and he's constantlycoming up with these dry, dry
jokes that you know I findreally funny and we're a very
sarcastic family.
I'm from New York, my husband'sfrom Boston, and so we are just
(20:43):
sarcastic by nature and he'salso very like sarcastically
funny.
Obviously, you know timing isreally important and so he'll be
very sarcastic with a teacheror with another student and it's
(21:04):
like, oh, we got to teach youwhen that's appropriate and when
not appropriate.
But he's just trying to alwaysbe funny and I think that's just
a beautiful trait that he has.
I mean, you know his journey ishard in the sense that you know
the spectrum is so wide, right,and so he has what we would
(21:27):
consider an invisible disability, right, like if, to look at him
, you know you wouldn'tnecessarily know it would be
like his, you know talking tohimself because he's huge
echolalia right.
You know the vocalizations, therepeating right or him singing
to himself or him incorporatinghimself in some of his scripting
right and stuff like that.
So you wouldn't at first reallynotice it, but after you know,
(21:49):
if you observe you will right.
But you know it's things thathe's in.
He just started high schoolthis year.
Middle school um, am I allowedto swear like?
yeah, right right, um, and I'man educator, so middle school
was really bad.
(22:10):
Like it was hard, like therewas a lot of bullying and a lot
of unnecessary.
Like just I wanted to go downto the school and beat some
asses, like that's how bad it is.
And so and they just couldn'tappreciate.
You know that's how heself-regulates, right.
And so it's that like justteaching others that you know
(22:32):
what he's not bothering you Likeyou know, like you can still
befriend him Like it's it's not,you know.
So it's just that.
And I think you know, theearlier we can educate children,
that's kind of like why I wrotea law in the state of Illinois.
As an educator, you know,before we take a you know a day
off for a holiday, whether it's,you know, veterans Day, or you
(22:55):
know Day or Christmas, like weteach around those holidays.
And so I wrote a law that passedin the state of Illinois making
you know April, the first weekof April, autism Acceptance Week
.
And we did that purposefullybecause then it forces, you know
, school districts andbusinesses and organizations to
teach about acceptance andinclusion.
(23:16):
And you know my whole ideabehind it was we got to teach
about acceptance and inclusion.
And you know my whole ideabehind it was we got to teach
our youth now because theyreally are our future right, and
if they can learn about how tobe compassionate, empathetic,
how they can, you know, makefriends with someone who's neuro
, you know, diverse thanthemselves, then you know it's
going to make for a much moreaccepting world, and it won't
(23:39):
seem like such a you know nuanceto see someone who is maybe
talking to themselves orflapping their hands, or walking
on their tippy toes and talking, or you know, just these these
things that some of our autisticchildren do, and so you know
yeah, you know it's sointeresting because I have this
situation that happened over thelast probably three years.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I think about three years ago I ordered a bunch of
noise-canceling headphones andwe sent some off to like an
event that was in town and thenwe kept some and everywhere we
go, my son loves to wear them.
He loves to wear his headphones, and I didn't realize it until
maybe a few times in.
(24:23):
But we get a different responsefrom people when he's wearing
his headphones.
When he wasn't wearing them,I'd often get the look of you
know what the heck and whateverelse is going on.
But when he has his headphoneson, I can see this going on, but
when he has, his headphones on.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
I can see this softness in people.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I can see this better .
Yeah, exactly, it's exactly.
It's an identifier, and youknow there were times where my
husband and I struggled withwell, do we need to get him a
vest that says I'm autistic?
Please be kind?
Do we need to like?
And we, the same way you did,came up with, all of you know,
these books and safety kits andall of these things that we
implemented in our own community, and just for that same reason,
(25:05):
we want to just be at the store, having a grocery store,
without having to explain why weare who we are.
We're just people walking downthe aisle, why we are who we are
.
We're just people walking downthe aisle Like why do we need to
explain what kind of behaviorwe're having that you don't
understand?
Speaker 3 (25:26):
You know, some of our children don't want to be a
walking billboard.
Just why don't you just showkindness?
Yes, I don't have to have alabel for you to be kind or for
you to look at me.
All of a sudden it's a doubleedged sword, isn't it?
It really is.
It's like, yeah, it really is.
And it's hard because you knowsome people you know will wear
(25:47):
their, you know will proudlyspeak up and self-advocate.
But then there are some who youknow they don't want to do that
and it's their prerogative.
They're the autistic, they canmake whatever decision they want
.
But I kind of agree.
Like they shouldn't have to bea walking billboard for you to
show kindness, right.
(26:07):
Like that should just beintrinsically as a society.
It doesn't cost anything to benice, a human law.
It's the benefit of a doubt,you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
It just doesn't, it's the benefit of a doubt.
You know, yeah, it just doesn'tAbsolutely.
And you know, you and I know,especially with your education
background and things like that,that you know right now, one in
(26:37):
36 is the number of diagnosedautistics in the United States,
of children that are diagnosed.
Now, those numbers don'tinclude, let's be real,
undiagnosed, obviouslyunderdiagnosed, underserved
communities, females so many Inyour opinion and people.
This is not fact data oranything you need to take.
(26:57):
But what do you think thenumbers are closer to?
Dr Anneke Vandenbroek?
Speaker 3 (27:21):
So you know, I've actually so that they used to,
you know, have as autism to thisbig spectrum, right, and we
know that autism doesn't comealone, right?
Most of the time autism hasanother co-occurring comorbidity
, now known as co-occurringsthat come along with it, and so
autism really does.
(27:42):
You know, they say, as they say, if you've met one child with
autism, you've done exactly that, you've met one child with
autism.
Because it really does manifestdifferently in every individual
because of these otherco-occurrings, right, whether
it's, like in my son's case,autism and ADHD, autism and
epilepsy, autism and apraxia,autism and OCD, autism and
(28:04):
sensory, just you know,processing disorder, like
there's.
So some people have two andthree diagnosis, right, yeah,
and so it's, it's really hard.
And then I know that there'sthis fight within the community
which really gets me you know,really even outraged, because
instead of us coming together,you know, to raise awareness
(28:27):
together to get our needs mettogether between employment and
housing and disability, you know, and accessibility and medical
and all this other stuff we'refighting with each other about
within the community that weshouldn't be doing that.
You know about whether you knowhigh support needs versus you
(28:48):
know less support needs and how.
You know.
Just, you know they don't wantautism to be called a disability
, but it is a disability anddisability should not be a
shameful word and it should notbe a bad word, cause it's not.
It's, you know, the environmentthat disables people, it's not
them themselves, you know.
So I feel very strongly aboutthis and I very strongly about
(29:08):
this.
And so I just feel like it'shard for me to answer that
question, because I'm number one, I'm obviously not a medical
professional.
But I will say that we knowthat the numbers are not exact.
Yeah, because there's peoplewho still don't even have access
to a diagnosis, or they'rewaiting one and two years on a
(29:29):
wait list, or they don't havethe financial means right.
So the numbers are definitelynot completely accurate.
But then, on the flip side,sarah, there are people who are
self-diagnosing themselves and A?
A because maybe they don't haveaccess or because of their, you
(29:50):
know, for their parents it mayhave been a taboo, or they just
weren't educated.
You know they're so culturallyI'm latina, that's very cultural
, right, there's a lot of thingsright.
But I think, too, some peopleare self-diagnosing themselves
who are not autistic, and that'sjust, you know.
I'm just going to be honest,like you, and so, as someone who
has worked with ADOS, which isthe instrument right, and who
(30:12):
has worked with cards and allthese, you know, tools in the
field that I was in and who hadtaught so many, worked with so
many classes on this, like youknow, you're not a mod five,
which is the adult testing, asmuch as you say you are.
You're not.
So I think you know you're nota mod five, which is the adult
testing, as much as you say youare.
You're not.
So I think you know.
I think it's hard for me to saythat and I will speak as a
non-medical professional.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
I just want to be honest.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
You know, I see so many people who we know are are
not diagnosed.
And then we see people whoclaim that they are, that we
know for a fact that they're not.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Oh, that's really interesting, wow, and I guess,
with a lot of exposure to thecommunity itself and to the
families and things, and youwould get that perception and
view of that, that some thatsomebody don't.
Well, I think we have likethree minutes left and I'm
excited to hear about what's tocome and I mean, I know
(31:09):
obviously you're taking this allthe way to Congresses and
Senates and things andeverywhere it needs to be.
What is Autism Heroes Projectnext step that we can check out?
Speaker 3 (31:21):
So I'm excited because we have a first
responder documentary that Ijust produced and we're going to
release it.
I believe the date is November16th.
It's going to be a publicviewing with legislation in the
room, police chief, angel sense,police officers who have
autistic children, who are inthis documentary.
(31:42):
And we're going to really workto mandate um.
You know certain states alreadyhave mandated autism training,
but we want to make thisdocumentary part of um police
officer school, like the academywhere, before they even get out
on the street, that theyunderstand what good policing
and the signs to identify autismto avoid what could be the
(32:06):
worst scenario which we've seenso much of that just this year
alone and following what's goingon in the community, and this
is something that's veryimportant to us.
So we're working withlegislation and we're going to
make mandated and you know westart in one state and then we
we take it across the nation andthen later this year November
is my birthday month and theaudio book for For the Love of
(32:28):
Autism, you know, with a lot ofthe authors who have recorded
their own chapters, oh wow, andyou can find the book right now
on Amazon, and then the audiobook will be coming out soon too
.
So a lot of great things thatwe're doing.
I would invite everybody to goto autismheroprojectorg to kind
(32:49):
of learn more about us, getinvolved.
We have social media.
We have like 70, almost 75,000followers on Facebook.
We're on LinkedIn, instagram,tiktok, youtube.
Subscribe to our channel.
You can watch some of the mostamazing videos about the work
that we do.
The documentary for firstresponders won't be up there
until November, after we unveilit publicly, but at least you'll
(33:12):
get to know what we do in thecommunity, and we're expanding,
so I'd love that.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Oh, thank you so so much for being my guest today,
tamika, and, like she said,please go to
autismheroprojectsorg.
You can also go to sjchildsorgto go find out more information
about me and connect with usboth, hi guys.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Hello, why?
How are you?
All of us on the same stage, Iknow.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I'm giving you all a big hug.
If you could just huddletogether so that I could just
hug you all at once for a quickvirtual hug, I love it.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
I have a background in theater.
I did a lot of acting and playsand playwriting, so I love what
you've done.
Just to let you know.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
I love it.
Thank you.
Next time you're inPennsylvania, I'll send you the
address to go and visit atheater.
I love it.
We have more live events fromthe theater.
Yeah, so that's what we'reaiming for.
Sarah's going to come next year.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Did you hear that Uh-huh.
Everyone holding me accountable.
Oh, I love it.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
And Maria, oh, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
You probably, you probably Maria and wise are also
, um, you know, part of thecommunity, the autism community,
and are so close um to me andhave been such great support and
wonderful friends.
And thank you guys so much.
And Jeff is, I can't even tellyou Jeff's been so great.
He's.
He's helped me put on four ofmy five autism events that I've
(34:47):
held, live summits, and we'vejust all together have created
so much awareness, so mucheducation.
So pack us all on the back.
Good job everyone.
That's the.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Sarah, sarah, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Love you guys.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
You have to keep the show moving.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Our next backstage.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Bye, sarah, we'll see you.
Welcome to the SJ Child Show, where a little bit
of knowledge can turn fear intounderstanding.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Enjoy the show.
Here we are.
We have some guests.
I'm guessing is it SJ Childs inthe back.
If she gives us the thumbs up,you know we're going to bring
Sarah to save us Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Oh, I'm so excited to see you guys.
We're excited to see you too.
Oh, it's so cool.
I can't wait to come and seeyou in person.
Yeah, maybe next year SJChild's Tour.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
SJ Child's Tour Coming to Pittsburgh 2025.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
We'll just start saying it and then she's going
to be like darn it, now I haveto.
Now, right?
No, and I wish I would havethought of this earlier.
I kind of laughed in my headthat I should have sent you guys
I Know Sarah shirts, because Ihave this joke with Phil and he
was asking people I want to comevisit this state this day.
And then I knew a bunch ofpeople and I was like Phil, you
(01:13):
should just wear an I Know Sarahshirt and then you can connect
with everyone.
I love that.
I love that they worn it.
I Know Sarah, yay.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Is Sarah pronounced like the A-H in Utah?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh, there's no H needed, no extra letter needed
here.
Thank you very much.
Raw Extra, no extra needed.
I was trying to make a Utah joke, well, and I'm excited I have a
wonderful guest that I broughttoday.
Uh, well, and I'm excited, Ihave a wonderful guest that I
brought today and she's doingamazing things in that wonderful
you know niche that I like tospeak on and that's the autistic
(01:52):
community.
So, uh, you're gonna love her.
She's doing amazing things andhelping thousands, maybe
millions of families.
Who knows?
It's just the things and thepeople we meet.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
We just spent 10 minutes plugging your event and
I see the banner behind you, theone in 36 mix virtual autism
summit.
I know that comes out.
Is that August, every August?
Is that when you're usually?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
doing that.
You know, Jeff, I can't evenbelieve I did it without you.
I mean, it was heartbreaking ina way.
At the same time it waswonderful.
But we did have a couple ofdays.
But I got a really great reviewafterwards because there were a
couple technical things andthey said, not even technical
difficulties could let thefabulous Sarah not put on a show
(02:39):
.
And I was like, oh, thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
And is the guest backstage?
Is there another guest?
She's ready.
Get the thumbs up, Carolyn.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Oh, there we go.
Give a thumbs up, Tamika.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I was born ready.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, welcome to the podcast theater inadooty on
Corbett Street in downtownTarentum.
We're so glad to have the SJChild Show.
We're going to go ahead andwhen we wrap up here, we're
going to put up your speakercard and we'll get off stage and
then when we come back, you'refree to start.
We'll have a nice clean editfor you whenever we go to cut
this all up.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Love it.
Thanks guys.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Welcome everybody.
It's the SJ Child.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Show.
Let's go to that speaker card.
Hello, oh, thank you so muchfor joining me here today,
especially the audience and theviewers, but and my incredible
guest, who this is our time,first time getting together like
(03:52):
this, and I always find thatthis is my favorite way to meet
someone and connect to someoneis that authentic, organic,
getting to know you session kindof kind of thing.
So thank you I'm.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
We've been wanting to do this for I don't know how
many years now, but we wefinally have made it happen, so
I'm excited yes, chase eachother down just at the right
moment.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
love it well.
I'm sj child sarah bradford.
I host the SJ Child Showpodcast, where I talk about and
speak to neurodiverseindividuals and families,
experts all sorts, and we diveinto the world of neurodiversity
, education, parenting.
(04:37):
And today I have a reallyspecial guest.
This is Tamika, and I've beenfollowing her journey, like she
said, for a few years now aswell, and it's always amazing
when you are able to connectwith people in the same space
and feel that, just like yousaid, you were born ready.
(04:59):
You have this passion, thisdrive.
Let us get to know more aboutyou and get to know you better.
Please introduce yourself andtell us a little bit about why
you're here today.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Okay, so my name is Tamika Lachey Morales and I run
an amazing nonprofitorganization After my own heart.
I always say it's called theAutism Hero Project, and the
genesis behind it was myautistic son.
Back in 2015, june 4th 2015,you know, you never forget those
(05:33):
important dates my son wasdiagnosed with autism spectrum
disorder and ADHD and two yearslater, when I kind of say that I
got to all the level and stagesof grief, I came into
acceptance and I started anonprofit and the Autism Hero
(05:56):
Project does so many greatthings.
We started out in OnePillar,which was purchasing medical
insurance for children on theautism spectrum, because we
started at first in the state ofIllinois and unfortunately,
back then the state of Illinoisdidn't basically give families
on Medicaid access to autismtherapies, specifically applied
(06:19):
behavior analysis, aba therapyand I just thought it was
honestly criminal that you knowevery children's journal, every
doctor, every psychologist,everyone is saying you know
these are the therapies yourchild needs, this is the gold
standard therapy.
But you know I was fortunate Ihad a job, medical insurance
that covered it, but so manyfamilies didn't and you know, so
(06:42):
it was a barrier and so wedecided to be that financial
bridge to cover, you know,children on the autism spectrum
who didn't have access to allthe therapies that we believe
they needed to thrive and striveand reach their full potential.
(07:06):
We have expanded so much where,a couple years back, we started
doing education scholarships,because we know that autistic
children are going to becomeautistic adults and we know that
there's this huge cliff at theage of 22 where there's such a
lack of services out there, andso we started giving out
education scholarships that arenot just for university, because
we know not all of our childrenthrive in, you know, the
college bound but they have, youknow, whether it's culinary or
(07:29):
vocational or cybersecurity, orthere's so many other lanes.
You know arts and theater thatour children really you know
hyper focus and do amazingthings, and so we didn't want to
limit it to just university.
So these higher educationgrants are just for any adult
who's looking to honestly find atalent or hone in on something
(07:52):
that they love, a passion thatthey have, and be able to close
that unemployment gap that ourautistic you know families have,
where it's 80 to 85% ofunderemployment or unemployment
rates, for you know our autisticindividuals, and so we wanted
to help close that gap and we doa whole lot of inclusive events
(08:14):
, raise a whole lot of autismawareness.
We believe you should be ableto come as you are, whether
that's theater, shows.
So we, you know, we honestlysponsor sensory theater.
We sponsor basketball Windy CityBulls out of Chicago.
Obviously.
We, you know baseball games,sports events, holiday events,
(08:35):
inclusive events.
And then over the last fouryears almost five now we've also
been sponsoring first respondertraining and that has become a
huge pillar of ours paying tosponsor police departments and
hospitals and fire departmentsto get trained on how to deal
with our population anddeescalate and prevent crises,
(08:57):
and so yeah, so we've done a lotin seven years, lots of
projects and so many familiesimpacted by all of these efforts
put in.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
You know, it really all does start with that
experience that you have at home, and you see that struggle that
you're having, and you knowthat other families don't even
know how to look for help or howto ask for help, and it's
heartbreaking to think that, andthat's why I love that we're
both doing these amazingcommunity service projects, if
(09:34):
you will, to really just helplike not only help the community
, raise their awareness, buthelp create a place that we can
send our children to someday.
100% Right, and that reallyembodies the special kind of
(09:54):
like perception that you need tohave to be with them, and I
think that that's important tokind of clarify for people is
that it all comes down to yourperception like where are you
going to give in your heart,your mind, whatever the space to
learn more, become moreeducated and more um, like you
(10:18):
said it, it takes time to totake that acceptance, um journey
and um it comes.
It comes with so many ups anddowns, and there is nothing
better, though, than finding acommunity, finding your
community.
What did you?
There must be some kind of likeinspiration, or where did you
(10:40):
maybe find some community thathelped you understand you were
not alone.
I know I didn't.
I didn't mean to bring thetissue box people.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
But you know it's funny, my vice president and I
we just released a video at ourgala.
Every year we I kind of Iproduced this documentary of
like where we're at and whatwe've been able to accomplish in
the year.
And it's funny because weimmediately talked about like
when we got our diagnosis and soshe was fortunate that she had
(11:22):
a lot of friends that hadchildren on the spectrum, so she
immediately had a village likeshe had her tribe and that's so
important right when I honestlyonly knew one person and that
one person didn't even live inthe same state, who was a friend
of mine, but she was the firstperson I called eventually when
I could talk, right, and so Iactually I created my village.
(11:48):
That's really what I did.
And it's funny because we werejust talking about this story,
because I wrote a book.
I've written a few book, youknow kind of writings in this
space and this is my last book,called For the Love of Autism,
and it has Dr Temple Grandin, ithas Dr Carrie Magro, eileen Lam
(12:12):
, andrew Arbo, it has all thesefamous autistic influencers and
but what's funny is my tribe wasimmediately my closest friends
and it took me almost two yearsto tell our family that we had
an autistic child, like aboutclosest friends.
And it took me to almost twoyears to tell our family that we
had an autistic child, likeabout the diagnosis, and it took
me you know that's almost thatlong to even tell my closest
(12:34):
friends.
I just, I just couldn't liketalk about it, like without
getting so emotional.
And so we were just laughingbecause we started a book club
with this with our church groupand we were just kind of
recounting the story, how shewas telling them that it was
that the way that we all, thatthey had all found out was
(12:54):
because I put a PowerPointpresentation together.
That's like the teacher in me,because I am, I'm a teacher, I'm
an entrepreneur, but I put thisPowerPoint presentation
together because I figured ittook me so long to wrap my head
around it that I didn't wantthem to take two years to do
(13:15):
that presentation I talked about, you know the data, the
prevalence, you know how, youknow what are the symptoms, the
signs, what they believe theresearch shows, but really how
to support you know my legendarykid and myself, and it was such
(13:36):
an emotional like all of uswere all together and they
became my immediate tribe.
They were the first ones thatand none of them had an autistic
child.
But I was taking classes thatnight because I was in the
middle of beyond my master'sdegree and doing all this stuff,
and they would babysit, theywere just like everything to me
(13:58):
and then eventually, through myson's therapies, they had
support groups.
Eventually, through my son'stherapies, they had support
groups and then I would go tothem and honestly, in the
beginning I was like, ok, it wasamazing to hear, like obviously
, where my child was and youknow what I could expect.
But at the same time itactually was killing my soul to
(14:22):
hear some of these stories thatI could only take so much right,
because I'm taking on my ownstuff.
But then, you know, I felt likean empath and I was taking on
their stuff and I wanted to helpeverybody and it was like like
my husband is like Tamika, thisis very unhealthy for you, like
I just couldn't.
I just couldn't like be allthings to all people and my own
(14:47):
self-care was kind of going outthe window and and eventually,
you know, we I kind of build my,my community through the Autism
Hero Project.
The more stuff we did, the morefamilies came and they shared
theirs and we, honestly, thebeauty about our nonprofit is
that so many of our familieshave become our closest friends.
(15:08):
Yeah, and we know that we cancall each other and you know we
can be there for one another andwe can.
You know, like our latest video, one of the moms say you know,
you call one of them up andwe're like immediately, do you
need tequila?
Do we need to go beat somebodyup?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Like, do we just need to go get some nanny patties,
Like what?
Speaker 3 (15:27):
do we need to go?
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Absolutely.
I love that.
It really is so important thatyou and you know kind of that.
You and you know kind of, asyou had said.
It's like this isolatingjourney.
At the very beginning I wasreally lucky.
My husband had a sister withDown syndrome, so he had already
grown up in this like specialmind space, this way to treat
(15:53):
special, you know, people withwith Down syndrome and on autism
, and so that was nice.
I mean, he didn't know,obviously, how to be a dad to an
autistic son, so that was to.
It takes just a journey oftrial and error and living.
But what a beautiful journeyit's become.
And since then, you know, ourwhole family has received our,
(16:14):
our diagnoses and we understandthat we're all on the spectrum
in our family and that reallybrought us close together,
closer than I could have everimagined or expected, especially
with my husband, when we bothkind of were able to say, wow,
(16:34):
this 20 year friendship is justeven more than that.
It is this like a meeting ofminds that just was meant to be
and I feel that way about like,about you and about the
connections that I find likekindred spirits.
You know, we all go throughthis journey and while we're at
this process, it feels so lonelyand so scary and so sad, and
(16:56):
it's not until some years later,when we can reflect and when we
meet people like each otherthat we're like oh yes, this is
it.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
That's exactly what I wrote about when we wrote about
For the Love of Autism.
I mean, these are honest, rawstories from autistics parents,
mothers, fathers because there'ssuch a lack of men speaking
about their, you know, journeyand how they're navigating this
for themselves.
But you know sibling stories.
I mean we have it all in hereAutistic interpretations.
(17:28):
They have such an amazingfollowing and they're just so
amazing to to Jesse, jessica,their daughter and sister,
daughter and sister.
And so it's just been, honestlyit's.
I always say that, like becausewe're so busy, focused, like as
a, as a system, right, andthere's so much systematic
change that needs to happen, butbecause people are just so
(17:49):
focused on the milestones andthe perceived timelines that
people should meet thesemilestones, right, the fact is
that there is so much beauty inautism but we're so focused in
what the world has deemed asdeficiencies, right, these
timelines, versus you know thatI think they're just not living
(18:14):
in the present to see and feelthe beauty of what is right in
front of their eyes.
And it's funny because when youlook at neurotypicals and you
see all the movies and you seeall these social, you know
influencers on social media, andyou see all these people and
everybody's trying to doeverything possible to stand out
, right, yeah, to be unique andto be different.
(18:37):
And yet our own children don'teven need to do that.
They're just, you know,different that way, and yet they
just want to fit in and theydon't want to be standing out.
It's like the whole oppositeand I'm like you know why?
Fit in when you can stand out,right, and it's like you don't
need to change.
It's not you, my love, whoneeds to change.
(18:58):
It's not you.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
I love that.
In fact, I do these dailytoday's missions on my Facebook
page every day that just kind ofgive everyone a little bit of
quote of a day to try to live by.
I see them every day I say Ilove it, I love it.
The other day, I think, youknow, be yourself, they'll
adjust Just.
And the other day, I think wasyou know, be yourself, they'll
adjust, just be you, they'lladjust Absolutely, and that's it
(19:22):
.
That's just it.
And you know, I think we allthrough experience kinds of of
feats, then we support them inthe best way we can, by
supporting their strengths, by,you know, lifting them up, by
(19:44):
their, um, love of what they,what they love to do, what, what
are some things, some joy, if,if we can, if you don't mind
talking about your son a littlebit.
What are some things that heloves?
What are his special interests?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
So I have to say Legend is really funny, like
sarcastically funny, and just he, just he loves you know he's a
YouTube freak, right, so heloves YouTube.
You know the typical thingsthat boys his age teenagers,
early teenagers like they likeyou know gaming and they like
(20:21):
YouTube, and you know he'sreally no different in that
aspect we just have to kind ofcontrol how many hours but he's
really funny and he's constantlycoming up with these dry, dry
jokes that you know I findreally funny and we're a very
sarcastic family.
I'm from New York, my husband'sfrom Boston, and so we are just
(20:43):
sarcastic by nature and he'salso very like sarcastically
funny.
Obviously, you know timing isreally important and so he'll be
very sarcastic with a teacheror with another student and it's
(21:04):
like, oh, we got to teach youwhen that's appropriate and when
not appropriate.
But he's just trying to alwaysbe funny and I think that's just
a beautiful trait that he has.
I mean, you know his journey ishard in the sense that you know
the spectrum is so wide, right,and so he has what we would
(21:27):
consider an invisible disability, right, like if, to look at him
, you know you wouldn'tnecessarily know it would be
like his, you know talking tohimself because he's huge
echolalia right.
You know the vocalizations, therepeating right or him singing
to himself or him incorporatinghimself in some of his scripting
right and stuff like that.
So you wouldn't at first reallynotice it, but after you know,
(21:49):
if you observe you will right.
But you know it's things thathe's in.
He just started high schoolthis year.
Middle school um, am I allowedto swear like?
yeah, right right, um, and I'man educator, so middle school
was really bad.
(22:10):
Like it was hard, like therewas a lot of bullying and a lot
of unnecessary.
Like just I wanted to go downto the school and beat some
asses, like that's how bad it is.
And so and they just couldn'tappreciate.
You know that's how heself-regulates, right.
And so it's that like justteaching others that you know
(22:32):
what he's not bothering you Likeyou know, like you can still
befriend him Like it's it's not,you know.
So it's just that.
And I think you know, theearlier we can educate children,
that's kind of like why I wrotea law in the state of Illinois.
As an educator, you know,before we take a you know a day
off for a holiday, whether it's,you know, veterans Day, or you
(22:55):
know Day or Christmas, like weteach around those holidays.
And so I wrote a law that passedin the state of Illinois making
you know April, the first weekof April, autism Acceptance Week
.
And we did that purposefullybecause then it forces, you know
, school districts andbusinesses and organizations to
teach about acceptance andinclusion.
(23:16):
And you know my whole ideabehind it was we got to teach
about acceptance and inclusion.
And you know my whole ideabehind it was we got to teach
our youth now because theyreally are our future right, and
if they can learn about how tobe compassionate, empathetic,
how they can, you know, makefriends with someone who's neuro
, you know, diverse thanthemselves, then you know it's
going to make for a much moreaccepting world, and it won't
(23:39):
seem like such a you know nuanceto see someone who is maybe
talking to themselves orflapping their hands, or walking
on their tippy toes and talking, or you know, just these these
things that some of our autisticchildren do, and so you know
yeah, you know it's sointeresting because I have this
situation that happened over thelast probably three years.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
I think about three years ago I ordered a bunch of
noise-canceling headphones andwe sent some off to like an
event that was in town and thenwe kept some and everywhere we
go, my son loves to wear them.
He loves to wear his headphones, and I didn't realize it until
maybe a few times in.
(24:23):
But we get a different responsefrom people when he's wearing
his headphones.
When he wasn't wearing them,I'd often get the look of you
know what the heck and whateverelse is going on.
But when he has his headphoneson, I can see this going on, but
when he has, his headphones on.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
I can see this softness in people.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I can see this better .
Yeah, exactly, it's exactly.
It's an identifier, and youknow there were times where my
husband and I struggled withwell, do we need to get him a
vest that says I'm autistic?
Please be kind?
Do we need to like?
And we, the same way you did,came up with, all of you know,
these books and safety kits andall of these things that we
implemented in our own community, and just for that same reason,
(25:05):
we want to just be at the store, having a grocery store,
without having to explain why weare who we are.
We're just people walking downthe aisle, why we are who we are
.
We're just people walking downthe aisle Like why do we need to
explain what kind of behaviorwe're having that you don't
understand?
Speaker 3 (25:26):
You know, some of our children don't want to be a
walking billboard.
Just why don't you just showkindness?
Yes, I don't have to have alabel for you to be kind or for
you to look at me.
All of a sudden it's a doubleedged sword, isn't it?
It really is.
It's like, yeah, it really is.
And it's hard because you knowsome people you know will wear
(25:47):
their, you know will proudlyspeak up and self-advocate.
But then there are some who youknow they don't want to do that
and it's their prerogative.
They're the autistic, they canmake whatever decision they want
.
But I kind of agree.
Like they shouldn't have to bea walking billboard for you to
show kindness, right.
(26:07):
Like that should just beintrinsically as a society.
It doesn't cost anything to benice, a human law.
It's the benefit of a doubt,you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
It just doesn't, it's the benefit of a doubt.
You know, yeah, it just doesn'tAbsolutely.
And you know, you and I know,especially with your education
background and things like that,that you know right now, one in
(26:37):
36 is the number of diagnosedautistics in the United States,
of children that are diagnosed.
Now, those numbers don'tinclude, let's be real,
undiagnosed, obviouslyunderdiagnosed, underserved
communities, females so many Inyour opinion and people.
This is not fact data oranything you need to take.
(26:57):
But what do you think thenumbers are closer to?
Dr Anneke Vandenbroek?
Speaker 3 (27:21):
So you know, I've actually so that they used to,
you know, have as autism to thisbig spectrum, right, and we
know that autism doesn't comealone, right?
Most of the time autism hasanother co-occurring comorbidity
, now known as co-occurringsthat come along with it, and so
autism really does.
(27:42):
You know, they say, as they say, if you've met one child with
autism, you've done exactly that, you've met one child with
autism.
Because it really does manifestdifferently in every individual
because of these otherco-occurrings, right, whether
it's, like in my son's case,autism and ADHD, autism and
epilepsy, autism and apraxia,autism and OCD, autism and
(28:04):
sensory, just you know,processing disorder, like
there's.
So some people have two andthree diagnosis, right, yeah,
and so it's, it's really hard.
And then I know that there'sthis fight within the community
which really gets me you know,really even outraged, because
instead of us coming together,you know, to raise awareness
(28:27):
together to get our needs mettogether between employment and
housing and disability, you know, and accessibility and medical
and all this other stuff we'refighting with each other about
within the community that weshouldn't be doing that.
You know about whether you knowhigh support needs versus you
(28:48):
know less support needs and how.
You know.
Just, you know they don't wantautism to be called a disability
, but it is a disability anddisability should not be a
shameful word and it should notbe a bad word, cause it's not.
It's, you know, the environmentthat disables people, it's not
them themselves, you know.
So I feel very strongly aboutthis and I very strongly about
(29:08):
this.
And so I just feel like it'shard for me to answer that
question, because I'm number one, I'm obviously not a medical
professional.
But I will say that we knowthat the numbers are not exact.
Yeah, because there's peoplewho still don't even have access
to a diagnosis, or they'rewaiting one and two years on a
(29:29):
wait list, or they don't havethe financial means right.
So the numbers are definitelynot completely accurate.
But then, on the flip side,sarah, there are people who are
self-diagnosing themselves and A?
A because maybe they don't haveaccess or because of their, you
(29:50):
know, for their parents it mayhave been a taboo, or they just
weren't educated.
You know they're so culturallyI'm latina, that's very cultural
, right, there's a lot of thingsright.
But I think, too, some peopleare self-diagnosing themselves
who are not autistic, and that'sjust, you know.
I'm just going to be honest,like you, and so, as someone who
has worked with ADOS, which isthe instrument right, and who
(30:12):
has worked with cards and allthese, you know, tools in the
field that I was in and who hadtaught so many, worked with so
many classes on this, like youknow, you're not a mod five,
which is the adult testing, asmuch as you say you are.
You're not.
So I think you know you're nota mod five, which is the adult
testing, as much as you say youare.
You're not.
So I think you know.
I think it's hard for me to saythat and I will speak as a
non-medical professional.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
I just want to be honest.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
You know, I see so many people who we know are are
not diagnosed.
And then we see people whoclaim that they are, that we
know for a fact that they're not.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Oh, that's really interesting, wow, and I guess,
with a lot of exposure to thecommunity itself and to the
families and things, and youwould get that perception and
view of that, that some thatsomebody don't.
Well, I think we have likethree minutes left and I'm
excited to hear about what's tocome and I mean, I know
(31:09):
obviously you're taking this allthe way to Congresses and
Senates and things andeverywhere it needs to be.
What is Autism Heroes Projectnext step that we can check out?
Speaker 3 (31:21):
So I'm excited because we have a first
responder documentary that Ijust produced and we're going to
release it.
I believe the date is November16th.
It's going to be a publicviewing with legislation in the
room, police chief, angel sense,police officers who have
autistic children, who are inthis documentary.
(31:42):
And we're going to really workto mandate um.
You know certain states alreadyhave mandated autism training,
but we want to make thisdocumentary part of um police
officer school, like the academywhere, before they even get out
on the street, that theyunderstand what good policing
and the signs to identify autismto avoid what could be the
(32:06):
worst scenario which we've seenso much of that just this year
alone and following what's goingon in the community, and this
is something that's veryimportant to us.
So we're working withlegislation and we're going to
make mandated and you know westart in one state and then we
we take it across the nation andthen later this year November
is my birthday month and theaudio book for For the Love of
(32:28):
Autism, you know, with a lot ofthe authors who have recorded
their own chapters, oh wow, andyou can find the book right now
on Amazon, and then the audiobook will be coming out soon too
.
So a lot of great things thatwe're doing.
I would invite everybody to goto autismheroprojectorg to kind
(32:49):
of learn more about us, getinvolved.
We have social media.
We have like 70, almost 75,000followers on Facebook.
We're on LinkedIn, instagram,tiktok, youtube.
Subscribe to our channel.
You can watch some of the mostamazing videos about the work
that we do.
The documentary for firstresponders won't be up there
until November, after we unveilit publicly, but at least you'll
(33:12):
get to know what we do in thecommunity, and we're expanding,
so I'd love that.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Oh, thank you so so much for being my guest today,
tamika, and, like she said,please go to
autismheroprojectsorg.
You can also go to sjchildsorgto go find out more information
about me and connect with usboth, hi guys.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Hello, why?
How are you?
All of us on the same stage, Iknow.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
I'm giving you all a big hug.
If you could just huddletogether so that I could just
hug you all at once for a quickvirtual hug, I love it.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
I have a background in theater.
I did a lot of acting and playsand playwriting, so I love what
you've done.
Just to let you know.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
I love it.
Thank you.
Next time you're inPennsylvania, I'll send you the
address to go and visit atheater.
I love it.
We have more live events fromthe theater.
Yeah, so that's what we'reaiming for.
Sarah's going to come next year.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Did you hear that Uh-huh.
Everyone holding me accountable.
Oh, I love it.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
And Maria, oh, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
You probably, you probably Maria and wise are also
, um, you know, part of thecommunity, the autism community,
and are so close um to me andhave been such great support and
wonderful friends.
And thank you guys so much.
And Jeff is, I can't even tellyou Jeff's been so great.
He's.
He's helped me put on four ofmy five autism events that I've
(34:47):
held, live summits, and we'vejust all together have created
so much awareness, so mucheducation.
So pack us all on the back.
Good job everyone.
That's the.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Sarah, sarah, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Love you guys.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
You have to keep the show moving.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
Our next backstage.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Bye, sarah, we'll see you.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!