ASD and Me: Learning About High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder
In the spring of 2008, the autism journey began for author Teresa DeMars and her family when doctors diagnosed her son, Donnie, with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  Like all families who face this diagnosis, DeMars and her husband, Jon, worked to find early interventions to help their son.  Donnie first spent six months in a special education classroom at a local public school.  He then attended Partners in Excellence, an autism therapy center in Burnsville, Minnesota that provides ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) therapy to children with autism.  Donnie received 40 hours of therapy per week up until August of 2009, when he “graduated” from the program.  Today he attends a local charter school, where he is mainstreamed in a classroom with typical children.  Like other parents with children on the spectrum, DeMars wondered about how she would explain autism to her son.  She felt that children with high functioning ASD deserved a character that could share his or her own thoughts…a character that children with ASD could relate to and even look up to.  Inspired by this realization, DeMars wrote ASD and ME.