Ernie,
As good as a golfer that you are. You are a better Father. Your son Ben is blessed to have you and you and your wife will do eveything you can for your son Ben. You are in our prayers.

We are launching “The 3rd Annual Charity Car show Sunday, April 27, 2008″ a car show for the benefit & welfare of special & autistic children, as well as children with disabilities brought to you by Edelbrock. These little children are hoping for your minimal support. Remember: Helping is not a burden. To you guys & this site’s Moderator, THANK YOU!

Full Details:
http://www.revvedup4kidz.com/

I’m not sure how to ask this without sounding offensive, but is autism this prevalent only in Western societies or is it as high in the rest of the world? Personally, I have never heard of anyone with an autistic child in our society, and I wonder if this is because children are not diagnosed correctly or because there just isn’t such a high number of autistic cases present. Is there, perhaps, a study done on this that you know of?

I firmly believe that one day the link between the childhood vaccination campaign and autism will come to light and the vaccination campaign will be stopped or significantly altered to prevent more unnecessary damage to our children.

My sister has a son and daughter with mild autism/developmental delay (current diagnosis at ages 7 and 5 is pervasive developmental disorders but new funding for more intervention only kicks in again at 9 for this category they have just been told).
There is constant heartbreak and we’re constantly wondering whether they’re going to have a normal adulthood.
They’re both gorgeous, happy, delightful children (most of the time!), they bring joy to our lives everyday, but it is hard to find the money to make sure we do everything right by them.
It’s hard getting information on where to go and what to do let alone the money to do it all!
It’s great more celebrities are speaking out about autism and how hard it is on families.

I am sorry, but being the mother of a child with autism I see how devastating the rhetoric organizations like Autism Speaks use actually is.

My child is a gorgeous face on a poster for them so they can raise more money about this “devastating condition” that is “ruining families” “stealing children” “causing pain, suffering” “dissolving marriages.” You name the problem and Autism Speaks shows how autism causes it.

Why does this organization Autism Speaks have no autistic people on their board? Do they want to keep autistic teens and adults silenced?

I respect celebrities like this golfer who want to help their child. I want to help my son have an excellent life. I can’t do that by letting an organization teach him that they way he is has “ruined” my family.

My son is autistic. I will NOT teach my son that he is anything less in my eyes than he would have been had he been “normal.” My child is a gift, a blessing, a miracle walking. And he’s autistic.

He needs some help in some areas but don’t we all!! Some celebrity needs to stand up and proudly say their child is autistic…not “cure them” “admit it” or “reveal it”

It makes me want to cry. Does Sigourney Weaver have children? Cover her – that woman understands neurodiversty…and mabye some of these celebrities should Google it.

Having a grandson who has been diagnosed with mild autism or developmental delay I have seen first hand how financially devastating it can be for families to obtain the treatment their children need. Along with raising funds to help less fortunate families, hopefully Mr. Els will be able to raise the awareness of the lack of insurance coverage for these children. These families can drown in debt trying to pay for something that is an epidemic while their insurance companies deny their claims. It’s time for this to stop.

I am a social worker. Many of my “kids” have autism. Now, families are even having more than one autistic child.

It IS an epidemic and we better find a way to stop it.

Despite being a top golfer, I’ve always had the impression that Ernie Els is an intensely private man. It does speak volumes that he has decided to promote this cause and – most importantly – sought the opinion and support of all his family before doing so.

The PGA Tour is well-known for it’s efforts in supporting all sorts of very good causes in the community and I’m sure that they will be supporting Ernie in his endeavors to create autism awareness.

Well done Ernie.

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