CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Column: San Diego author looks to change perception of autism

San Diego Union-Tribune - 5/18/2023

Derek Danziger deserves an "A" for showing that autism can be something awesome.

The north San Diego resident has penned his first children's book. It's not the typical tale of adventure, solving a mystery or forging friendships.

The public relations firm founder is on a mission to change people's perception of autism spectrum disorder. Acceptance of diversity doesn't pertain just to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or religion. It also relates to genetic or medical disorders and disabilities that make people different.

Danziger, whose book is titled "I'm Autistic And I'm Awesome!," available on Amazon, is passionate about the subject because he has a family member who is autistic.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2023 Community Report on Autism indicates that 1 in 36 children, age 8, were diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in 2020, nearly double the percentage of 10 years prior and more than quadruple that of 20 years earlier.

In California, the occurrence of autism, which is largely considered genetic, is higher than in all the other areas in the study. Here, 1 in 22 kids, age 8, are identified as being on the autism spectrum.

The CDC data were gathered from 11 communities in different states across the United States. San Diego was the community studied in California, and its numbers represent the state.

The ASD diagnoses for 8-year-olds ranged from a low of 2.3 percent in Maryland to a high of 4.5 percent in California.

The data also show ASD is four times more common in boys and occurs across all racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups.

In 2015, "Sesame Street" introduced a new Muppet named Julia, an autistic 4-year-old girl whose persona was developed with the help of autism advocates and researchers.

Julia met Big Bird on a TV show episode in April 2017. Big Bird confides to others that he has never met anyone quite like Julia, but they point out that he has friends of all different types, and Julia will be no exception.

Julia's debut on Sesame Street went a long way to helping children accept kids on the spectrum who act a bit differently than they do, notes Amy Munera, who manages the Autism Society San Diego and is the mother of three autistic children.

"We were happy when 'Sesame Street' introduced the Julia character," she says. It teaches awareness of differences to kids without making it a big deal.

When Munera received a copy of Danziger's book, "I'm Autistic And I'm Awesome!" this week, she read it immediately, concluding that it does what Julia did — subtly encourages acceptance.

"It's good to have these resources that help other kids understand those with autism. It decreases the stigma."

Danziger calls this project his labor of love to encourage people to look at autism through a different lens. "Autism is a challenge for sure," he says, but different behaviors associated with autism result in unique capabilities.

For instance, being hyper-focused and studying every element of something, say historic planes or cars, can result in an ability to rattle off the names, models and years that is amazing. Or a child might not do well at team sports but excel far beyond expectations in an individual sport.

Instead of considering autistic behaviors as challenges and negatives, Danziger refers to them as special abilities and superpowers.

"I didn't see books out there telling that side," he says. "It's important to empower these kids and make them feel, even if they are different, that they are different in a special way. That was the impetus for writing this story."

In his book, children exhibit various behaviors — waving their arms, skipping around, being unusually quiet and refusing to join in an activity — all portrayed as acceptable behavior, even though it wasn't what the other kids were doing.

Danziger has spent his career championing causes as a paid professional. Before founding his own PR company, he was president of Katz & Associates communications firm, V.P. of Nuffer, Smith, Tucker PR, and he was marketing V.P. for the Centre City Development Corp.

For years, in his spare time, he has been writing children's books — along with an adult mystery novel — but all have remained on his computer, unpublished.

This one, though, had a message he was eager to get out. A friend, Phyllis Schwartz, former general manager of NBC TV in San Diego, offered some advice.

She published a children's book last year to help kids understand what it means when mommy suffers from cancer. She recommended that he contact her publisher, Road to Awesome, in Omaha, Neb. He did.

"They really liked my story and thought it was a good fit," Danziger says. The book was released last month — variously called Autism Awareness Month, Autism Acceptance Month and World Autism Month.

In it, Danziger doesn't portray just one autistic child, he rotates autistic behaviors around to kids of differing ethnicities and genders.

Munera complimented that approach.

She isn't surprised by the CDC report showing increased autism diagnoses and the high occurrence locally. Criteria for diagnosis have widened over the past few years, Munera explains. That means, people are being diagnosed today who would not have been in the past.

The Autism Society of America responded similarly and stressed the urgent need to increase state and federal support for autism services.

"People are more aware that you can be higher functioning but still be on the autism spectrum," she says. "When their children are diagnosed, lots of adults discover that they, too, have autism."

She also notes that people are drawn to San Diego because it offers various autism services and support. Members of the military, for instance, can ask to be stationed here to have access to these services.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.

©2023 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.