Didi Conn Quotes

After I got married, the first child born to us was mentally handicapped.

I have a son, and my son has autism. There's certain things that I deal with that a lot of people don't deal with.

My heart bleeds, goes out for families with kids with autism.

I treasure my meetings with individuals affected by autism - parents, children, teachers and friends. Their strength is inspiring. They deserve all possible opportunities for education, employment and integration.

I was bullied in first grade, and it's definitely not fun. But always tell somebody instead of holding it in. Communicate with people and just say, 'Hey, I'm being bullied. I need help.'

Being a typical teenager isn't easy. When you have autism, it can be extra difficult. We need more public awareness about these hurdles as well as compassion towards these young people.

You can't expect your children to be perfect.

Mom worked with autistic children.

No one tells you that your life is effectively over when you have a child: that you're never going to draw another complacent breath again... or that whatever level of hypochondria and rage you'd learned to repress and live with is going to seem like the good old days.

It's much more work for the mother of an autistic child to have a job, because working with an autistic child is such a hassle until they go to school.

One of the great pleasures of having children is spending one-on-one time with them. Sadly, I could do that for only a few minutes at a time. I'd never say that ADD/ADHD is a gift or a blessing. And if someone says it is a gift, I'd love to return it.

Normal people have an incredible lack of empathy. They have good emotional empathy, but they don't have much empathy for the autistic kid who is screaming at the baseball game because he can't stand the sensory overload. Or the autistic kid having a meltdown in the school cafeteria because there's too much stimulation.

Once you have a Down's syndrome child, you can't conform. In a way, you're free.

Everybody knows how to raise children, except the people who have them.

I look at autism like a bus accident, and you don't become cured from a bus accident, but you can recover.

As a parent with a child with autism, it's been really tough to experience your child having autism.

New motherhood is such a vulnerable and powerful time, but it's also really hard.

We all want our children to be the best they can be; and one of the blessings of having an autistic child is that you notice every little achievement, and it becomes cause for celebration.

Personally, becoming a mother has been such a rewarding and wonderful experience. However, at times it has also been a huge challenge. Even for me who has support at home that most mothers do not.

A baby is such a huge change for everyone, so acknowledge that. It's hard, and you don't have to be great at everything right away.

One day, as I was speaking to another mother of a disabled child, I said our secret weapon against this disease is to do all we can without any expectation of results.

A lot of families with kids with autism can't afford speech therapy for their children and can't afford to get them in the best schools for autism. We're trying to help make a difference in those communities.

No one can ever prepare a parent for two things: the immeasurable love that comes with having a child; and the sorrow and confusion that comes when your child appears to learn in a different way from other children.

It's great that we all talk about investment, but there needs to be action behind it as well. If we don't push for the change for women's football to go in the right direction, then it won't come by itself.

When you've grown up always knowing that there's something that seemed to be different about you from most people - and not being able to understand until my mid-forties that what we were talking about here was autism - I've had to learn an awful let about myself and what I can and can't do and what I can or can't cope with.