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April is Autism Awareness Month and for one parent in particular, it hits close to home
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Not only has she made a career out of helping those with autism, she has a family tie to the disorder as well
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Erie News Now's Megan Selinski sits down with Sarah Kitchen to get advice for parents who might be in a similar situation
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Sarah Kitchen loves her daughter. My daughter's awesome. I will say that. She is great
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She's the coolest 11 year old ever. She's the only kid that I know that complains that they don't learn enough about the world's wars in school
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And so she spends her own time just researching, reading books, looking up stuff on YouTube
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For a period of time she was obsessed with the first ladies. That was her thing
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She was six and she was Jackie Kennedy for Halloween. Previous to that she was a Statue of Liberty
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She's very into politics. She enjoys watching Lucy grow, but being her parent has not come without its challenges
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My husband has since passed away so I a single mom working and also trying to maintain the social life of an 11 Lucy struggles with social interaction and communication
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She has found it hard to make friends at times. Lucy has autism
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She'd be fine just sitting in a room, reading her books all day long. I want her to at least have the opportunity
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If she chooses to do that, that's fine. I just don't want her to miss out socially because she doesn't have the skills
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receiving that initial diagnosis was overwhelming for kitchen it was very overwhelming I thought I just want to get through this this day this diagnosis
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and start to digest that the doctors told her that she needed a long-term plan
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for Lucy and that this would impact Lucy's life for years to come she doesn't
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see autism as something holding her back she sees it as something that makes her
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unique and special and it's going to set her apart. Kitchen tells us that
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building a support group has been extremely helpful. She advises that all
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parents seek out help if they have any questions or concerns about their
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children. Megan Selenski, Erie News Now
