Parents Of Autistic Son Turn To Indiegogo for Support

timthumb (PRBuzz.com) December 10, 2012 — Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a set of developmental conditions including mild to severely delayed or impaired communication and social skills, behaviors, and cognitive skills. As a result, each child – and each family – coping with autism has a unique set of challenges.

Many parents of Autistic children willingly admit they were emotionally and financially unprepared for news of their child’s disorder. Despite the signs and clues, learning a child has a diagnosis of any of the Autism Spectrum Disorders can leave a parent in state of shock, despair and eventually, frustration.

“My wife Catherine, daughter Ashlynn and I feel blessed to have Zachary in our lives,” said Tony Reeves, father of 6 year old Zachary. “We just realize we require more tools and resources to give Zachary what he needs as a child with Autism.”

In 2008, Zachary was diagnosed with Autism at age 2. And after the shock of the diagnosis, the Reeves family came to understand the realities of the disorder, which requires much more than they could earn. “I work full time and many nights to make ends meet, but it never seems to be enough,” Reeves explained. “This is one of the reasons we decided to move to Alabama, where we can access more Autism services for Zachary.”

Reeves also plans to get a communication board and sign language cards for Zachary, recommended by Zachary’s speech and occupational therapist. “These are very expensive devices for a school,” Reeves continued, “and we are just not financially able to do it at the same time as we plan for the family move to Alabama. This is why we launched an Indiegogo campaign last week.”

Indiegogo.com is a popular crowdfunding website. People post campaigns on the Indiegogo platform to raise funds for all types of campaigns, including causes, inventions, and creative work. Visitors to the site who want to help can make a pledge directly on the funding platform. Donations range from $1 to as high as thousands of dollars, depending on the contributor, and in exchange, contributors receive perks that relate to the particular campaign.

“We hope to raise $6,000 to cover the cost of Zachary’s communication board, sign language cards and a few other resources to get Zachary set up once we arrive in Alabama” explained Reeves. “We realize it’s not something we can do alone, so we hope the broader community of Indiegogo supporters will help.”

For additional information on the ‘Help for Zachary’ campaign and how to help, visit http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/286055.


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