We had the pleasure of connecting with Kayla Monville in 2020 when she was getting ready to release Rock With Me, an autism inspired ‘I Love You’ book for children. We were honored to publish a blog written by Kayla featuring her first children’s book; you can read about it here! Two years later and here we are celebrating yet another accomplishment; Kayla received full funding last month for her second children’s book, A Day in the Clouds. Keep reading to learn more about her collection of autism inspired books.
Being a parent can be so rewarding, but with that it can also be hard. There is no training, education or preparation that can equip new parents for the challenges they will face. Being a parent to children on the Autism Spectrum adds a layer of uncertainty and challenges that can make parents feel isolated and not be able to identify with other parents due to their lifestyle differences.
The diagnosis process is unsettling because of all the unknown. There are support systems out there, but parents don’t know where to look or even know what they need in order to look. It’s easy to just buckle down and go into survival mode. It’s hard to explain to others while parents are learning to navigate this world themselves.
When the world shut down in 2020, Kayla Monville went on a mission to spread Autism awareness, acceptance and education to connect all families when she wrote Rock With Me Autism Inspired I Love You Book! There are two teachable words to help explain just some of the Autism characteristics to early learners. As an educator, and parent of two children with Autism, she recognized the importance of early education and wanted to spread awareness and acceptance through early literacy to support, educate and connect all families. She ran a Kickstarter Campaign and produced Rock with Me in six months.
Introducing Rock With Me, Autism Inspired I Love You book!
How SGF connected with kayla
Specially Gifted Foundation was the first organization to support Kayla’s Kickstarter Campaign by releasing a blog post on Kayla, her family and this unique book that was needed by all families.The initial connection had been made by coincidence through social media, but the connection was not coincidental at all. Their mission and visions are aligned in that they see a need for support for families with children with disabilities. Even so, when Kayla launched her merchandise line, customers were able to donate a book in their name to Specially Gifted Foundation. These 38 books donated will be distributed to families in the Rome, Georgia area.
Since then, Kayla has been working on her second children’s book, A Day in the Clouds. This book was written to support imagination, pretend play and promote early literacy skills through use of repetition for predictability and rhyme!
A Day in the Clouds is autism inspired and…
Children with Autism often have a hard time with imaginative play, especially developmental play that relates to their peers. This book was inspired by the first time Kayla’s son looked at the clouds and wondered what he could do if he spent a day in the clouds. They spent the afternoon brainstorming ideas and even acting out as if they went to some of these events you will see in the story! The characters are also inspired by Autism, as well as FOXP1 Syndrome. Kayla has a Facebook group that voted on the names of the characters. Avery was chosen for the Fox character. Avery is a special girl that has FOXP1 Syndrome which is a rare genetic syndrome that often shows signs of Autism characteristics. Being the character is a fox, it fit perfectly as they called Avery their Foxy girl. There will be information on Autism and FOXP1 Syndrome in the back of the book to promote understanding, awareness and acceptance.
The Kickstarter launched Tuesday, May 3rd, at 6:30am and provided the option to have books be donated. 75 copies of Rock With Me Autism Inspired I Love You Book were donated through the first Kickstarter. For those that supported the Kickstarter campaign for A Day in the Clouds, part of the rewards included the opportunity for families to add their child’s name, or someone special’s name to the book.
Kayla also has a launch team page on Facebook to provide updates throughout this process, including details about the release of this book; the Facebook page also provided a space for people to contribute their opinion and advice as the book was being constructed.
Kayla and her family are overjoyed to celebrate this accomplishment; this would not have been possible without those that supported her mission to provide autism inspired books to families everywhere.
Written by: Kayla Monville
