This information-packed guest blog is the second in a series from my friend and colleague Dan E. Burns. Dan is absolutely passionate about asking tough questions and finding answers related to young adults living with autism and their families. Dan’s last guest post Funding Autism for Life addressed options families have for supporting and caring for individuals with autism when they age out of public school. This excellent post from Dan explores The Brookwood Community, the brain in relation to movement and exercise and much, much more. Enjoy!
Touch, See, Feel, Move: The Brookwood Community in Texas and the Autism Epidemic
By Dan E. Burns
“We don’t just believe in miracles,” my guide told me, “we rely on them.” White-haired and in her eighties now, striding ahead of me cell phone in hand, my guide, called “Me-Maw” by some of the residents who to flock around her, prefers to remain anonymous. “I didn’t build this wonderful place,” she explained. “It’s God’s doing.”
She opened door after door as we made our way through clusters of busy citizens in the ceramic workshops, gym, natatorium, and clinic to a fine, on-campus restaurant near the gift shop and gardens of The Brookwood Community, a 495-acre residential/educational village designed to enhance the lives of adults with disabilities.

Our Heroes & Temper Tantrums
By Julie Hornok
I was watching a Dallas Cowboys game with my husband while scrapbooking, and I happened to glance up at the TV just in time to witness the most bizarre event.
Something had happened in the football game that had caused the football player to have a temper tantrum right there on the field over a call the ref made. Not only was I shocked that his behavior was unprofessional, but I was shocked that the crowd seemed to think his actions were justified! I could not believe this man was considered an American hero.
Just imagine you are sitting with friends around the kitchen table playing a deeply competitive game of Monopoly. Your friend, Tom, rolls the dice. It is an 8, but he needed a 10 to get onto Boardwalk. He goes ballistic! He jumps up from the table, throws the dice across the room and slams his Monopoly money to the floor. “It’s not fair!” he screams. “It was a bad roll! Those dice have been making bad rolls against me the whole game!!!”

Elementary school was like a bad dream at times. Teachers were not prepared to deal with my autistic son. Educators truly need to be trained in the most appropriate strategies for teaching our kids. There is already a surge of spectrum kids in school and the stats say there will be many more. The system needs an overhaul.