Celebrating Differences with Mother and Author Kayla Monville

As a parent with two children with Autism, there are many features or traits that all parents can identify with that a typical I love you board book expresses, but this I Love You book normalizes Autism characteristics, promotes inclusion, understanding, and touches a place in the hearts of parents with children with disabilities’ that a typical I love you book could not reach.

When I left my child’s Autism evaluation, I felt like there was a hole in my heart. I spent the entire day talking about my child’s delays and differences with strangers, just to find out my child was receiving an Autism diagnosis. This is something that is needed in the medical field to get more outside services to support their delays, but there are not many resources in the community in which we live. When I left, I made it a point to talk with my husband about our child’s strength, uniqueness, and all the things we loved about them. If I had been given this book when I left the evaluation, I would not have felt so discouraged. It is the professionals’ job to have those tough conversations with families and they were as sensitive to our hearts as they could be, but it still feels disheartening as a parent to shine a light on our child in this manner. They gave unlimited amount of compliments, accommodations and information, but something was still missing. 

After writing this I love You book, I knew this was the piece that was missing. Rock With Me, Autism Inspired I Love You book is the first board book that embraces Autism, promotes acceptance and understanding as well as can be used as an educational tool to explain Autism characteristic to young children. This board book truly needs to be in every family’s home library and every educator and professional working with children’s collection. It is a book to remind us why we are so specially gifted and celebrate our differences that make us unique!