Autism Awareness Month Proclaimed in Fayette County

Fayette County Commissioners Court signed a proclamation designating the month of April as Autism Acceptance Month in Fayette County.

On hand for the signing was Destiny Siptak, executive director of the Turtle Wing Foundation, whose mission is to help children with learning challenges in rural areas acchieve their full potential.

The proclamation read, in part, “... this year we want to go beyond simply promoting autism awareness, to encouraging friends and collaborators to become partners in a movement toward acceptance and appreciation.”

The proclamation, as presented to the Court last week, included a statistic that said an estimated 1 in 68 children in the U.S. are on the autism spectrum. Siptak told the Commissioners that was an old statistic. The latest numbers, she said, are even more staggering.

“I just got new numbers, and it’s now one in 36 children diagnosed with autism,” Siptak said. “I know there’s a lot of things going on federalwise to see if we can figure out those numbers. It continues to grow every year.”

As Siptak mentioned, President Donald Trump has said his administration will take a close look at the rise in autism rates. Trump spoke about the issue just last month during his speech to a joint session of Congress.

“There’s something wrong,” Trump said in the speech. “One in 36. Think of that. So we’re going to find out what it is.”

At the Commissioners Court meeting last week, Siptak said one in six children have a learning disability in general. She said Turtle Wing has funded over a million dollars in direct services to children over the last five years. She said 45 percent of the children they serve live in Fayette County.

“We could only do that with the support of you guys and support from the County as a whole,” Siptak said. “So I just want to say Thank You and express our gratitude.”