It is that time of year again, where we prepare for promoting autism awareness in the month of April. I try to purchase different autism awareness items to give away to therapists and other professionals plus get new shirts for my son Matthew to wear at summer camp.

It took only a week for all my products to arrive this year. I also renewed my magazine subscriptions to Spectrum Publications and Autism Spectrum Quarerly. I recently started subscribing again to Exceptional Parent as well. I received a please come back postcard to Autism/Asperger's Digest with an offer for one free issue and new low renewal rate of $34.95. This special deal comes out to seven issues for one year. I will be subscribing to The Autism Perspective magazine next.

My membership with Autism Society of America was renewed with a purchase of their youth and adult shoelaces. Members receive 5% off their orders and receive The Advocate magazine quarterly. The shoelaces sell for $3.00 for adults and youth sizes. I went with two in each size. There are marked with a label noting Y or A on the outside of the plastic bag they arrive in. For $15.00 I also bought the Art as a Catalyst Bookmark, engraved with the following message: "Each of us plays a role in autism awareness; we are all important pieces of the puzzle."

The site has some nice holiday ornaments that I will purchase later in the year when I do my holiday shopping for awareness items. I considered getting some autism postage stamps through www.zazzle.com, but at twenty dollars I decided against it as I pay most of my bills online.

I headed over to Buttons and more on ebay and picked up an autism mug for $10.00. An autism awareness search led me to a seller known as autism gear. When I received my order I learned that there is an actual website that sells these products. The logo on the items at autism gear state - Autism - would you know it if you saw it .

For $4.00 I purchased a 3 inch iron-on autism patch, five pencils unsharpened for $3.75, 25 handout cards in English and 25 handout cards in Spanish at $3.50 each. The pencils are made from recycled blue denim with a blue eraser. I did notice more variety at the website than selling on ebay and will be buying more items like their pens and sports bottle. The cards have information printed on both sides and are glossy on each side. The website is listed and some stats on autism.

The site also sells bookmarks, puzzle fabric, books, keychains, magnets, mugs and a business card/memo holder that looks like a nice present for a teacher and/or other professional. Shipping at www.autismgear.com is cheap, a sales receipt is provided and paypal is accepted. My total was $20.50.

My next stop was at the I love a child with autism site to purchase some shirts for Matthew. This site also takes paypal and ships via priority mail. My total was $64.00 with $9.00 for shipping. I ordered eight buttons at $1.25 each, three shirts at $12.00 each, 20 awareness cards for $3.00, a bumper magnet for $3.50 and a puzzle static cling for $3.00.

The t-shirts state the following, a grey shirt with the words Autism - it's not how you think and underneath in blue writing says promote autism awareness. The other two shirts I chose white as the color. Please pardon my behavior on one line in blue with the next line stating I am autistic. The last line is in red lettering and says - Unfortunately my brother has no excuse. The other one has lettering in purple with the following message - Yes, I am autistic - stare if you must, I'm not paying attention to you anyway! I got two in the medium size and one large so they will grow with Matthew for a few years.

Matthew wore a red one saying please be patient with me I have autism this past week to school. I had purchased those last year and then he wore the grey one a few days later. We went to a community meeting one night last week and he was wearing one of these shirts. I always cut the tags off before putting all our clothes in the closet, but can relate that these are very soft and good for spring and summer wear.

The buttons have the following sayings - Everyday is autism awareness day to me, I may not be able to speak, but I have lots to say, I'm autistic & non-verbal, I am the face of autism and Proud Mom of a Child with autism. The letters are red and blue on these buttons and they are stored in small ziploc type bags.

My last visit was to CafePress. I always forget which sites I like the slogans at and started writing them down on post it notes to keep near the computer. That pile gets tossed into a small bag eventually so I could not easily find the stores I wanted to shop at and started with an autism awareness search at the main site. Now that I have received my items the receipt states you can use the product number in the search to find these items quickly. It also figures that as I type this I found the old list of the stores I liked.

I ordered a ten pack of magnets that say A is for Autism for $3.00 and product #49283645. Then I ordered two mini buttons that state Autism is a disorder NOT a disease. The word NOT is also underlined. I really liked this store's slogan and want to get more items from them soon. I did pick one magnet with that saying for $1.50, which is product #52369874. I also purchased a shirt for Matthew that shows a smile and the slogan I have autism and I am amazing. This sold for $16.99 in grey with the product # 47725369. I found a holiday ornament saying Autistics love animals. It shows a child petting a cat and sells for $9.99 and is product number 75364092.

My total was $68.98 with $8.35 in shipping, which was via UPS and left inside my mailbox since I was not home. It was nicely packaged in various envelopes. The last item I purchased from cafe press was a set of six greeting cards, product #94568928. These are in black and white with the stick figures that used to be in a bookmark that the Autism Society of America sold back in the 90s. The designer is the "Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder". There are a total of twenty showing spinning objects, no fear of real dangers, crying, uneven gross/fine motor skills and more. I had been wanting these for such a long time and glad to have found them in the greeting cards format.

The items I had on my list from long ago that I wanted to not forget about was an autism ornament celebrate autism, product # 39102139 and another slogan saying autism is not a tragedy - ignorance is the tragedy - This seller also has a slogan I think you're weird too. These can also be found at www.autistart.com. Two other store slogans that are worth looking into are - proudly autistic and understand autistics.

I am really pleased with these autism awareness items and hope others will benefit from purchasing these and similar products for their loved ones and to pass out to others to promote awareness.

APRIL IS AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH. Spread the word.




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Educational Autism Tips for Families 71 page resourceful ebook for families entering the school system with a recent autism diagnosis. Find out what issues take place over the course of a school day and meet these challenges head on.