Autism Rocks 2018

Unless you have been living under a rock, pun intended, you may have heard of the movement in which people all over the world are drawing or painting on small rocks and then these rocks are left in public places for others to find.

It is a wonderful idea. Decorate a rock, leave it for others to find and once found the rock is relocated to another hiding place for others to find. Quite often people will write their postcode on the underside of the rock so that it can be tracked to see just how far the rock travels.

I'm honestly not sure where the idea started - many people in many countries around the world are laying claim that they were the ones who started it. I do know that the rock movement is now worldwide.

There are many social media sites that you can join in which you can leave clues as to where you have left rocks or to show the rocks that you have found.

We became involved in the rock movement in April 2017 when an Autism advocate in the United Kingdom decided to put an Autism spin on the rocks.

For the month of April people, particularly those who are on autism journeys, were asked to decorate rocks with an Autism Awareness or Autism Acceptance message. The hashtag that was used during that month was #autismrocks.

When I mentioned to O and L what we were going to be doing, they were hooked. They loved decorating the pebbles that we purchased. After decorating some pebbles, we embarked on a playground adventure during which we hid rocks around the parks that we regularly visited in Perth, Western Australia.

This April we're going to be painting a few more rocks but this time we will be hiding them on the East coast of Australia!

So why not become involved? We purchased small pebbles from our local hardware store and then decorated the rocks with coloured permanent markers. It is a good idea to seal the rocks after decorating them. I found that a thin layer of clear PVA glue works well - it doesn't smudge the permanent markers. Then once the glue was dry, I painted a layer of clear nail polish over it all just for good luck.

You could write messages such as ....

"Autism is not a word to be feared, it is a child to be loved."

"Autism did not stop Einstein!"

"Autism is my super power, what's yours?"

"Why fit in when you were born to stand out."

"Grow your awareness."

"Autism is seeing the world differently."

"Autism - a different ability."

"Autism is challenging and rewarding."

"Autism rocks ... and spins and flaps ..."

Why not put your spin on the idea. And don't forget to add your postcode and the hashtag #autismrocks.

Let's see just how far and wide we can spread some Autism awareness and acceptance through a humble rock!