www.makingroom.net

Mike Woods, M.A. BCABA, CPI 

Mike received his Masters Degree in Conflict Management from Trinity College and Theological Seminary. He is a certified Crisis Prevention Instructor. Mike currently works for the largest school district in St. Louis as an Autism and Inclusion Specialist and is a Board Certified Associate Behavior Analyst. Prior to joining Rockwood, he served as a Master Training Specialist for the Judevine Center for Autism and as an Early Interventionist for the Missouri First Steps Program. He also taught continuing education courses on autism at Coastal Carolina College in North Carolina.
Mike has conducted workshops for a variety of churches, several national level autism conferences, and various annual state conferences.
Mike is happily married and the father of three wonderful boys, all three of whom are on the autism spectrum.

My Autistic Muslim Child 

A Site for Learning, Sharing and Support for Muslim Families                                                                                                         

Asalaam Aleikum everyone, and welcome to this blog.

I am a mother of a wonderful 6 year old autistic boy and a 7 year old wonderful “typical” girl.

My family took it very hard when Amin was diagnosed with Autism, but we came to terms with it, and we have accepted Allah’s decree . There is goodness in everything, we just have to recognize it and make the best of it. Alhamdulillah, I am so fortunate to have such an understanding, a wonderful community here in Orlando who supports me and my children, overlooking some of the little misbehavior my little boy might have time to time. I have not encountered any judgmental attitudes from anyone because of his autism.

Since his diagnosis, I have met many Muslim sisters, and received many emails from so many places around the world from Muslim parents of autistic children. Those emails and conversations were full of despair, hopelessness and confusion.

One question I was always asked, “do you take your son out into the public? How do you cope with the cruelty of the society?”  “Do you fear that muslims will judge him or not accept him?”

Yes, I take my son everywhere, to as many age appropriate events that are available in the area, or wherever I might be.

And my answer to the other questions was, and insha’Allah always will be, “NO, NO AND NO!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Then I realized that I needed to do something to show my fellow Muslim parents that autism is part of our lives, and that we should accept Allah’s decree, and move forward. We continue to make du’a for him to outgrow this condition, and we have the greatest of hope and trust in Allah that He will continue to show us amazing things from this amazing child who is special in so many ways.

So here is this blog, I hope you will find some useful information here, and if you have any questions we can discuss it   so other may benefit from it as well.

Visit: www.myautisticmuslimchild.com

 Ecumenical Church Services For Families with Special Needs