Weinberg freshman Jonathan Slack said his younger sister, Jennifer, is not afraid of anything. She loves to run, attend her brothers’ sporting events and watch Disney movies. Still, the 13-year-old can only speak about 100 words spontaneously and has low impulse control, Slack said.
Slack’s sister is autistic and low functioning. Many people do not understand Jennifer’s disorder, and strangers give her and her family dirty looks in public when she does something out of the norm, Slack said.
“When she has a temper tantrum, people stare and don’t understand why we can’t control her,” said Slack, who is the on-campus committee outreach chair for the Northwestern chapter of Autism Speaks U.
Autism Speaks U at NU is trying to raise awareness and spread understanding of the disorder with events throughout the months of April, which is National Autism Awareness Month, and May.
The fronts of Norris University Center, Leverone Hall and Deering Library followed the lead of buildings around the world when they glowed blue Friday night as part of “Light It Up Blue.” Autism Speaks, the largest science and advocacy autism organization in the world, sponsored the event to kick off National Autism Awareness Month and commemorate World Autism Awareness Day on Saturday, said Anjli Lodhavia, president and co-founder of the NU Autism Speaks U chapter.
Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that affects the brain’s development of social and communication skills and causes a spectrum of symptoms, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Its causes are unknown and no cure exists.
One in 110 children and one in 70 boys have autism, according to the Autism Speaks website.
“It’s so prevalent that people probably have a friend or know someone directly or indirectly that is affected by it somehow, but the general public doesn’t know much about it,” Slack said. “People don’t realize that autism doesn’t just affect a person; it affects families as a whole.”
Autism Speaks’s logo, a blue puzzle piece, symbolizes the elusive nature of the causes and treatment of the disorder, Lodhavia said.
“Autism itself is a puzzling disorder that not many people know about and don’t have many answers to,” the Communication sophomore said. “We’re trying to fill in pieces of a puzzle.”
Autism Speaks U passed out flyers with facts about autism at the Technological Institute last week and will hold bake sales and host A Capella for Autism on May 5. The X-Factors, Brown Sugar and The Catatonics will perform, and the group is working on obtaining more performers, Lodhavia said. The group has also formed a team to participate in the Walk Now for Autism Speaks event in Chicago on May 21.
McCormick sophomore Nicolás Grosso Giordano said he wants to learn more about autism because he does not know much about the disorder, and raising awareness is a necessary cause.
“I’m not even sure what autism even exactly is or how it affects lives,” he said. “There is definitely room for improvement.”
