April is Autism Awareness Month, and a local mother is sharing her family's story of living with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Michelle Charriere is from Morden and has a son who was diagnosed with A.S.D. when he was about 5 years old.

"He was hitting a lot of his gross motor skills, but his speech and language were not where I knew they should have been. When he played, he didn't play with his sister, he played alongside her and he would kind of do his own thing... he could go and adapt with the older and young kids but he couldn't adapt with the ones that he was with," explained Charriere.

Charriere adds her son was also exceptionally interested in technology at the age of two, and then was able to repeat lines from a movie verbatim.

"We had a lot of Disney references in the very beginning, and Sesame Street," she said.

However, a challenge early-on was finding the right supports, because doctors couldn't pinpoint which spectrum he fell under.

"He was too highly functional in the majority of the areas, but then the odd one he wasn't," said Charriere. Learning about autism back then was also difficult, Charriere said because the information online was minimal and it wasn't very positive.

Charriere said her son has come a long way, and there was a steep learning curve when it came to communication.

"He's high functioning and he's verbal... we need to allow him a minute to process what we just said, and then double that so then he has a minute to verbalize what he needs to tell us."

When multiple conversations take place, Charriere said it can result in meltdowns. Another challenge for her son has been dealing with bullying.

"When they don't have the social skills it's hard to make a peer group, and have all those buddies hang around and do what all the other kids are doing, and unfortunately bullying becomes an issue. Even now, individuals feel like it's an easy target because they don't have the social skills so they're not sure how to respond, and so they'll explode."

A question that Charriere has been asked is what causes Autism, a question that she feels puts blame on the mother.

"As the mom... you second guess everything you did from that time you found out you were pregnant, to where you are right now, 'what did I do wrong?' - I didn't, I didn't do anything wrong," she said.

Charriere is grateful to the Western School Division for providing resources for her son as early as Kindergarten. She is also grateful to a local peer support group for helping her family through the tough times.

Educating herself with the use of books and the Internet was also helpful for Charriere.

The book, "Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew", helped her family, relatives, and school understand her son's struggle.

Giving firm hugs to handle meltdowns led to another educational tool.

"We would go and do more a more firm and solid hug, and we could feel his body relaxing, just from that pressure," said Charriere.

This realization led to the family reading Temple Grandin's books, and even meeting her at a seminar in Brandon. Grandin is a professor and spokesperson for autism and was also diagnosed with autism at an early age.