Mom Spotlight with Jasmine Poole

Introduction

Maria Davis-Pierre:
Hello, and welcome to the Autism in Black Podcast. I’m Maria Davis-Pierre, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the State of Florida. American’s number one, autism advocate for black parents. I am the founder and CEO of Autism in Black Inc., where we aim to include the excluded. Today, we have Jasmine Poole. Jasmine lives in Pennsylvania, and is the mother of Maurice Rush who was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. At the age of two, he is currently 10 years old. She currently works as a neurology neurosurgery registered nurse at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, and is also the CEO founder of the Maurice Rush Foundation. Since May, 2018, Jasmine has made history and becoming the first autism mother advocate and nurse to start a weekly virtual autism parent support group known as Our Parents Need where parents can join regardless of their residents to talk about what autism parents need to. Jasmine is also the author of the children’s book, Rece Wants Cereal in efforts to increase awareness and magnify a real life challenge of parenting a nonverbal child with autism. Jasmine has also served as an American ambassador facilitating projects in Africa to enhance education on autism and autism inclusion. Jasmine is a wealth of knowledge and so inspiring. Enjoy today’s episode.

Episode

Maria Davis-Pierre:
Hi everybody, and welcome to the Autism in Black Podcast. Today, we have a very special guest. I’m so excited that she is joining us. We have Jasmine Poole.

Jasmine Poole:
Hello. Hello. Hello.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
So happy to have you here. Now I’ve already read your bio, but can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your autism journey with your son?

Jasmine Poole:
I thank you so much for having me on. So when you say, tell me about yourself and your autism journey. I just want to emphasize that word journey, because as we know, when we go through journeys, we know what the intention is. We know what the goal is, but we don’t really know how we are going to get there per se. And so we can only take us step by step each day until we reach. And then we meet some amazing people on the way we do some incredible things. And so for me and my journey with my son, my son is 10. He’ll be 11 in April. Our journey started in 2011 when he was two years old. And that’s when he got his official autism diagnosis. Before that it had been myself being pregnant with him while I was in nursing school, my junior year of nursing school and me being ever so determined to finish and complete school because I was pregnant, which does not seem like the norm at all.

I guess that was a prelude to our journey. And then once he was showing signs, I was following along the journey. So when you have a child, you’re like my child should be doing this at one month, two months. And it started becoming like, oh, he’s doing this, he’s doing this. Oh, now he’s not doing this. Oh, no, he stopped doing this. What is going on? And so I started questioning what was going on. I reached out to my friends, my family, my community, especially my church. And I am an African-American woman. And a lot of the people that were around me told me that I was crazy because I thought it could be autism, which when you think about it, everyone was so in the mindset of, no, this is not it, or this is what we believe, this can’t be it.

And so me stepping out again, doing something that was outside of the norm was unusual. And so I kept pushing for answers because I was confused. I was young. And I really didn’t know what to do. I graduated nursing school and I could not even sit for my boards right away because my son had been a picky eater. He was only eating cereal and he wasn’t meeting his developmental milestones either. So we were going through programs after the programs, therapies after therapies. We did an intense feeding program that lasted for two months, Monday through Friday, mind you, I don’t really have a career at this point because I had just gotten out of nursing school. And so Monday through Friday, 8-3, I tried to sneak in shifts part time working overnight. And I’m tired, but I going do this for my baby.

I remember us going through that program. It was an intense program. But through that program still, we had that appointment, that appointment with the developmental pediatrician. And for that, I remember fighting to get that appointment again and being told, no. I mean, he told the way and being told me that I was crazy to think that my child that something was going on with my child and I had to be that mom was like, no, I want to call every five minutes until I can get an appointment. And when we finally got our appointment was in the midst of all that intense therapy. And that’s when they said the words, you know, we believe and we are giving your child the diagnosis of autism. And even though I had said, oh my child, something’s going on. I think he has autism. I think he has autism when they said those words, Maria, when he said those words, I feel like they said it in slow motion.

And I felt every syllable, every word, more intensely than what I had thought. I remember at the same time why this slow motion phrase is going on, I called this poem called Welcome to Holland. And I don’t know if you’re familiar with the poem, but it’s, it’s a poem by Emily Perl Kingsley. And she talks about how you prepare for this trip, this journey to Italy, but yet the plane stops in Holland. And if you continue to reflect on the fact that you didn’t get to where you want it to go, A.K.A Italy, you’ll never embrace like the ambiance and the scenery and everything that Holland has to offer. So as they were saying, your child has autism, I was sitting there like welcome to Holland. And then I just started tearing up. And, that day, I will never forget that day.
And so I was sitting there with his father, guys, they process in a whole another way. So his father was silent. And as the days and the weeks started going on. I started really seeing how he was processing our child diagnosis. I remember feeling days, weeks after that I did not want anyone to know that my child had the official diagnosis. Looking back it sounds crazy because now, you know, I advocate and I am his voice, but when he first got diagnosed, I was like, no, no one, I don’t want anyone to classify him by his diagnosis. I don’t want people to see the diagnosis first, before they see the person. And so it took a long time. Well, not in a long time. It took a while for me to sit in the fact that my child had autism and that people needed to know. Because I was like, no one’s going to know. And so I told people that were close to me, such, our family obviously, and my best friend. And then the day came when we were in church and we were sitting there and we go to church regularly. We are very avid members in our church and we were sitting in church on the balcony. So we didn’t have to walk around and hurry thing. We just stay in one spot and Rece was going off, like he was having a terrible mouth meltdown, which we’re used to, and we just did what we needed to do as his parents so he calmed me down. Apparently there was this lady sitting on the whole opposite side of the balcony across from us. And she didn’t like it apparently because at the end of the service, she came to us and she was like, well, you know, maybe you can give him some crafts next time to help him.

So as his father balled up his fist. I had to say to the lady, okay, so our child has special needs one and two. He doesn’t even like to color at all. And that moment. It was like, okay, because so clearly, even though we all go to the same church, clearly we all are here. I’m going to have to cure the ignorance. Because clearly that’s all it is. It’s ignorance. You don’t know something and you don’t strive to be more aware or learn about something you are ignorant. And so that’s when everything started. All those walls that were up with me not wanting to say anything, they came crashing down. And that was the first year that we started walking for autism and we generated a team called I Walk for Rece and we got everybody on board. And to just promote what it was for people to understand that our child had autism, but also what the heck is autism because nobody people heard of autism people heard the word, no one really knew what it was. And to some people thought autism was down syndrome.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
Collection with disability especially in our communities because don’t get the information. So I can’t even imagine what it was like for you at that time because Malia seven and I know five years ago for us dealing with trying to educate people and navigate the myths, it was overwhelming and frustrating that so much misinformation was in our community. Then it was like, gosh, nobody’s in here educating us.

Jasmine Poole:
Exactly. And that was the whole thing. You know, people are like, Oh no, he’s just a boy. You know, boys are slower to develop, you know, like he’ll get out of it. Well, you know, my son being talked to, he was like fine. You know what? You need to work his behind like, Oh, excuse me, because I wear a size five. You wear size, I don’t know what size you wear, but I’m pretty sure you cannot even put your foot in one of my shoes.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
I think people don’t understand when they come up to parents, when they’re just observing, being an outsider, observing, and then they come up to their parents and offer advice when you don’t even know what it’s like for us day to day and then to offer advice, like that’s just going to cheer everything and all friends. And we can just move forward with church. That is just not that easy. And I don’t think people realize the impact that it has on parents to constantly hear this advice that we don’t want.

Jasmine Poole:
Exactly. And I think the first thing for anyone because people are probably listening like, oh, what do I do? I thought I was being helpful and giving advice. No, no, no, no, no. In order to speak, you have to first understand. And in order to understand, you have to listen. So first, if you’re going to come up to a parent, just be present, ask if you can help with anything, like just be that person who’s trying to understand so that they can help. Not in any malicious intent, not as with any other intention, but to be there and learn how you can help.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
I completely agree. And I think for friends and family, they get in the mode of wanting to fix. So, you know, when we’re just trying to vent, they’re offering not knowing that some of the stuff that we’re dealing with, there’s just nothing you can do to fix it. We just want to vent. So sometimes you just need to listen.

Jasmine Poole:
Exactly. Which is a reason why I started the Maurice Rush Foundation and a subset they opt parents need group, which is an autism. I should say parents with children on the spectrum or caregivers with those on a spectrum, a virtual support group for every once regardless of residents. So that you can be able to be in a space where you can do vent or understand. Because there’s not a lot of people that can understand what you’re going through and let them go through it too, and then be able to offer some resources and help.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
I will have to say you guys, I have attended a few of these sessions and it’s just like you are with your people. Don’t have to explain. They get what you say. When I say IP meeting, they understand right then and there, what I’m going through when I’m, if I’m saying there was toileting issues, they may understand if I’m whatever that I’m dealing with, they get it. I don’t have to constantly explain, well, this is what that means for us. And this is how it goes. They, get what the struggle I am dealing with that day. And then they provide their support. They have the opportunity to just have an open floor to say, this is what I’m dealing with. And you get that support that you need without judgment.

Jasmine Poole:
I’m so glad you said that because that is exactly how I want you to feel how I want anyone who joins our sessions to feel, because it is set for that support is set for encouragement and empowerment and on a whole other level. Not based on what we are used to. So many people want to quote and quote, talk to us, talk at us, teach us, but it feels like no one is really taking the time to listen and understand before they give us their perspective. But like in the groups, it has helped. It helps even me, you know? And so, which is one of the reasons why I started it because I’m like, well, if I don’t do this, I imagine that there are more parents going through this as well.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
And that, that lacks resources, you know, and the same reason I started autism and black parents don’t have a lot of resources, especially black parents. We don’t have a lot of resources. We don’t have the space and the opportunity to just have judgment, free zones. We have stigmas that we deal with in our community and our community, you know, so we are always dealing with something and hardly ever provided the opportunity or the space to just be and say, what’s on our mind without judgment. So I always think Jasmine for creating that space and I’m a therapist guy. So trust me when I say it is therapeutic setting, even though, may not be intentionally made to be a therapeutic session. It is therapeutic to me just having that space.

Jasmine Poole:
You just made my heart smile a thousand times, but I feel the same way so glad you could join us. I would have never met you, had I not?

Maria Davis-Pierre:
Not at all. We met through Instagram guys and somebody tagged me in a post that she was having this group. I was like, Oh my God, we need to connect. And then through that, I have been in her group. I have to get back into going to the group with time and things like that. But her group is amazing. She has amazing guest presenters in there. So you learn, you have an opportunity to learn as well as get the support you need. So it’s two fold.

Jasmine Poole:
Yes, yes, yes. Oh man. Just thinking about journeys again, meeting amazing people on the way. Wow.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
So you told us that you started a foundation. Can you tell us about your foundation?

Jasmine Poole:
So our foundation, it’s a nonprofit organization. It is called the Maurice Rush Foundation, which is actually my son’s name. So that is the why and why I started our group. Our mission is to fuel constant encouragement and empowerment to those connected to autism. And so we have done some amazing things, including starting the group. We had resource fairs community resource fairs, just being able to teach people and allow more awareness to happen when it comes to the subject of autism, giving free haircuts to those on the spectrum providing sensory integration techniques and teachings along the way. Just this past September, I was able to go over to Africa, the country of Mozambique to facilitate a workshop teaching about autism inclusion and understanding on that and because they are starting legit from the beginning. So when you think about us in the United States. How far we’ve come and how we are still on a continuous understanding and how we are implementing tools and strategies and increasing our understanding on autism. There is that same thing happening over in Africa, but they’re starting from they’re so behind the ball in comparison to us.
We’ve done holiday giveaways, giving away some amazing gifts that make sense for families, such as house cleaning and an iPad with apps, a GPS tracker for your child so you can make sure that they are safe and you can see and hear where they are, target gift cards, Walmart gift cards, ShopRite gift cards, gift cards that you can actually shop for your picky eater. Because we all know those on the spectrum has their favorite foods that that aren’t always served where they are. We had some other giveaways which I can’t recall off the top of my head right now. But our mission is to be that bridge because your child can have all the services in the world. There can be so many more services that can help your child. But if the parent is about to jump off that ledge, because they’re feeling like they’re not supported or they’re overwhelmed or whatever the case may be. If the parent isn’t there mentally to take their child to these services and these therapies, and even just by going to school, then the child can benefit. So kind of starting at the beginning and working with the parents and those who work with children to be able to allow that child to receive what they need to. So, hat is just like a snapshot of what and who we are, but there is just so much more to us. And in order to know, you have to be able to connect with us. So if you can, you can get on social media and find us @Mrushfoundation, our website, www.mrushfoundation.org. You can just connect with us and don’t feel too shy, just reach out and we can start building from there.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
Yes. And all of this information will be in the show notes as well. So I know that you mentioned earlier that you are a nurse and I know that you are a neurology neurosurgery nurse.

Jasmine Poole:
Yeah. Sometimes I forget I’m a nurse, full time as a nurse, sometimes I forget I’m a registered nurse. Oh my goodness. So I do work in neurology neurosurgery and the intention was not, let me tell you, when I graduated, I was like, I am not going to be a Bernie Sanders. I am not going to be a critical care nurse. I got the opposite. No, no, no. But somehow I have been able to work in the fields of research in nursing. I have been able to be a pediatric nurse. I have been able to worked in these different areas of nursing but somehow some way I have been pushed to neurology and I feel that there’s always a master plan happening because it makes complete sense why I’m here and my experience at home with my child being able to understand him and trying to make sense in understanding of what he is trying to communicate, even though he is nonverbal.

Certain things that I am more in tune to because I take the time to see him for who he is. It makes a whole heck of a difference on my job. There are Ideal with brains. I deal with injuries and insults to the brain when you have any insult or injury or infection or anything that harms the brain and the normal processes of the brain, you see deficits such as failure to communicate effectively. You see emotional parts that come out in full force. You see the ability or no ability to walk or use your limbs effectively or how you want had them. I see surgeries that you don’t even think about somebody operating on your brain. Someone is taking half of your skull out of your head. There is a drain coming out, the only external side that is releasing the fluid within your brain, that can change your life when you see that.
But there’s also an attitude of gratitude that happens. And it’s also an attitude in how I deal with the patient and how I deal with families. And I have more of a patience for my patients in comparison to my coworkers. So I see how my coworkers can go from zero to a hundred in a matter of seconds. How they’re not used to practicing patience. They’re all great nurses, but I know that I have another level, an extra added bonus of patience when it comes to those that I’m serving. And for that, I see a difference in the outcome of their care. I’m at my job, I worked 12 hour shifts at night. And so I am used to being there three. So I only have to work three nights a week, 12 hour shifts.
And with that, you can only imagine I’m kind a tired during the day, but I always kind of forget that I’m tired and I’m used to those minds around. I’m just going to keep going, keep going. And even if I’m tired, even if I am me going to work to help somebody else, it just makes my day. And it creates this spark of energy within me. And knowing that I have that added patience, just like I said, it makes a difference and I could see the difference in their vital signs. I could see the difference in the outcome of the night. Don’t let me have someone who not only as going through, like had seizures on her floor as well, strokes, there’s brain tumors. But seeing someone who might be developmentally delayed and going through these processes, they’re always kind of like, Jasmine, what should we do? It’s always like a, wow, I can’t believe you go through, you know, would you go through at homework freeze and then come here still smiling. Like it is miraculous how I got put into this career, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world at this point. And I know that I’ve been put here for a reason. I don’t even know if I answered your question.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
Yeah. And I was going to say, I was going to ask rather if you had gotten into the field to help Rece, but it sounded like Rece has helped you and your career path.

Jasmine Poole:
That is 100% true.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
Yes. That is 100% true on all levels. Everything that I have done that everyone marvels at is really because of my son. If he had not been born with his special and unique needs, I would not have had any push to do anything. Like I said, when I was pregnant with him in school, I was actually on the verge of quitting nursing school. And I remember his grandmother was like, just, you know, you can finish, you can finish. And then I got pregnant and I remember being like, no, I can’t quit. I have a child now I have to finish. And I finished. And then when he had this diagnosis, it was like, okay, like everything these bricks were being placed every single day, every single year, there was a new brick being lead perfectly and in the right order.

Jasmine Poole:
So that now we have this structure that this beautiful picture right now that I could never imagine being in front of me at all. I’ve been able to meet in whole conversations with the governor because I needed to vouch for my child. But I haven’t done that if I had not had Rece. I need to do that, I don’t know. I don’t think so. I would have never went to Africa. I will never would’ve probably never been a nurse right now and I would have never met you. I would have never met these families. I would have never been able to be in the position that I am in right now. And I can say with a hundred percent clarity and definition that it is because of my child. I would have never started the nonprofit. I would have never done it. I would’ve never wrote a book. Oh my gosh. You have a child and you’re just like, I’m going to teach my child about the world. But sometimes your child actually shows you what the world is really about and how you should order your steps within it.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
Yeah. I completely agree. I often say Malia has definitely made me a better therapist, advocate for her and seeing the struggles that families go through from the side of being that family, rather than being the therapist. And it was like, Oh, wow, this is, this is different. Because I completely agree that a lot of times we are thinking we’re going to show our kids and they in turn show us. And I think that it is very inspiring, everything that you’ve done and are doing. What advice do you have for parents who are maybe just getting the diagnosis or may want to quit their job or quit their career path and are not quite sure what the next step is for them?

Jasmine Poole:
I would honestly have to sit down with that parent and because we’re all going through something, right? We’re all being hit with news that can change our lives, the point and what I’m learning with everything. It’s almost scary a little bit because now when I approach situations or when I have something happen or I hear some really bad news like yesterday, Covid. I sit and I think what is the message behind this, in everything that I’m hit with and everything that I’m hearing that could really rock my soul. I say, what is the message? What am I supposed to be learning? Why is this happening? And when I do that, I realize that there is a greater plan. There is something that is meant for me to learn out of this, to help grow me because when we think of ourselves, we think we should think, I should say that we are planted in soil. We are seeds. And when you plant a seed, when a seed sits in soil, it is supposed to grow. It’s supposed to bloom and it’s supposed to flourish. And people are going to see that, whatever it is that it did, it builds up to be that it’s supposed to make a statement, whatever it grows to be, you cannot grow if you do not bloom where you’re planted. You cannot grow If you do not water, whatever it is, that your seed. And so if you are a parent getting this diagnosis is no, it’s not the end of the world. It is happening for you and not to you. It is designing you to be greater than yourself, greater than what you imagined yourself to be. Yes, it is hard. Oh my goodness. It is hard. And yes, it is challenging. And yes, it seems like it’s the end of the world. Yes. It seems like nobody is going through this, but you and nobody understands. If you continue to go through it, you will come out on the other side. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Trust me.
Because you can’t ever see that light if you don’t go through that girlfriend, boyfriend. It is designed to make you greater. Let’s be honest, if you did not get this diagnosis, what would you do? What would you be doing right now? And so when you face with these things and you are given these heavy loads to carry, that is the only way you’re going to build that muscle. You got it. You going to build your muscle. And the only way to do that is to add some weights to it. And so, yes, be prepared to listen, be prepared to use your voice. You have been giving a voice for a reason yet for your child, nobody knows your child but you so make sure you speak up for your child, make sure you are building the connections that you need to because everyone has something to offer that may help. Being mindful of what the overall goals are for your child and never, ever count your child out. Ever. Never say that your child can’t do something. Because if you say whatever you say is going to manifest itself.
I’m the person that says that their child can’t and the person that says their child can, are both usually right, because it’s what she’s saying, what you’re speaking into the atmosphere. So be intentional about what you speak over your child. You want to speak life over your child. Be mindful of those visions and those goals are set for your child and, and make sure that you are doing everything you can possibly can do every day to make sure that your child gets there. And also pay attention to your own self. Make sure you are filling your cup.

So many times they say you can’t pour from an empty cup. I’ll make sure you say, you got to make sure you fill your cup. Right? And so we do this thing where we try to fill our cup, but then we wound up pouring it right back out if our cup is empty. Right? What I implore, not even just parents, but people in general. What I implore you to do to make sure that you were having the utmost self-care is to make sure you fill your cup up, right? So your cup up self-care, whatever you need to do to make sure you are whole. And I want you to realize that when your cup is full, keep filling it up so that it overflows. And when it overflows, that means its running over, right? The running over and the overflow is for your child, is for the other people around you. What’s inside the cup is yours. Make sure it stays full and that overflow and running the cup over, whatever it is that is for everyone else, I’ll make sure you take care of yourself.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
I love that. I absolutely love that analogy. I’m writing. Look, you guys don’t know. I’m writing notes down. Okay. I’m taking notes. Because that is a beautiful way of putting it. A lot of times parents and caregivers we put so much into our children that we often times forget about ourselves. And then, I like to say self-care to black and people are telling you, this is for self-care and this is how you do self-care. And a lot of times that’s not realistic for a lot of us. Do the things that are intentional for us and make sure that our mental health is taken care. Just as much as our physical health and that cup is running over, then you are able to use all that’s running over to do and be those other roles that, you know, you are in.

Jasmine Poole:
It unselfish. Like, no, you just get that overflow. But no…

Maria Davis-Pierre:
Okay, it’s not selfish. Okay. We have to make sure that we’re on a hundred percent, especially when we have all these roles that we’re in and we operate at 50%. Yes. But is it going to be the same if we were operating at a hundred percent?

Jasmine Poole:
Exactly. It’s just like when your phone is about to die, eventually the colors change. You go from green to yellow, to red. And once you get to there, you’re like, Oh shoot, shoot. I’m in all about the die. We don’t want to be like that. We always want to be in the green.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
I love that. And I know you mentioned, Rece only eat his cereal and I know you have a book about that. So can you tell us about your book?

Jasmine Poole:
Yes, yes. Yes. So again, Rece was such a picky eater, but the picky to the point were textures, he’s a big sensory kid. And if anybody follows me personally on Instagram @J.poole I often put up stories and what he does. And a lot of times you’ll see him fidgeting with beads. You’ll see him sticking his head in a tree, you know, like playing with the Christmas tree and a Garland and just getting really excited because of the pleasure in the great fields that it gives them. Right. And so texture was always a big thing for him. But when he was younger, there were certain textures that did not give him them happy fields. And it actually pained him to touch them as if he was touching a bed of needles and colors were the same. And so like if I gave him something, we did a lot of sensory play to try to help with texture sensations and everything, but it was still introducing everything and you’re still getting him to learn that it’s okay.

And he despised the color green and yellow and red and brown, beige colors, where is state be neck. And somehow he got keyed on crispy cereal. Am I getting paid by Kellogg’s? But whatever, these hexagon square shapes pieces and that’s all he wanted to eat. He only wanted to eat the brand as well. Like he would not tolerate the generic. Like even if we crushed it into pieces and mixed it all in the bag, he would pick out all the pieces that were of the generic cereal. And that’s all he wanted to eat so much so that we had doesn’t give him PediaSure because otherwise he will be failure to thrive. Hence why we started a feeding clinic and since feeding program, shout outs to children’s hospital, Philadelphia for their feeding program because it saved my child’s life. So he only did that. He only wanted cereal. And so we would go to like restaurants and we, me and his dad would go to a restaurant and sit there at a restaurant and be like, okay, what do you want to order? And we’re order. I was like, I’ll have blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Dad would be like, oh, have this. And then we would just look at the waiter, like, alright, you can go now. And for the kid….

Maria Davis-Pierre:
I feel bad with that because people don’t understand because it happens to us too. We order, our twins we’ll get something and then Malia is like, no, I’m fine. And people are looking at us like, what are you doing to this child?

Jasmine Poole:
It is a child abuse. And it’s like, no, you don’t understand. We can order these. Honestly, there were times where I would just be like, all right, let me just order something off the kids and I’ll just go sit there. And so we will finish our food and there’ll be this get this plate of food in front of Rece and because his not hungry. Can we just take that? And all he wanted was cereal and we did not get those cereal, you know, it was a whole meltdown. And so we end up using, as we started doing therapies, we actually used cereal as a way to get him to try new things. Because it was a major reinforcement. And that was just the bank and the little kids would see him eating cereal in a birthday party instead of cake and ice cream and chips and all of that and they’re like what? “Why he always eat cereal” He let him checks. And I’m like, first of all, he doesn’t like checks because checks look square. He literally, he went and he checked either. And so I was like, you know what? I want to be able to write this book at the time. I was like, I don’t have the capacity to write this whole book about this chapter book. I want to do a children’s book. I really want to go into schools and be able to teach the kids and have something where they can realize why Rece does this. And so that’s the reason why cereal was burst. And it’s amazing. It was amazing to see like, wow, this is really helping kids understand even the teachers, even some parents.
There was one of the administrators in school came across the book and she’s an adjunct professor. And it seems like I use this book to facilitate, facilitate a conversation about autism. And I was like, wow. Wow. So, and that’s how Rece Wants Cereal came about a true life story. And in the book, it’s literally what we would go through. We would go through the trials and tribulations of him getting frustrated because he could not tell me verbally of what he wanted. And nine times out of 10, he always wanted cereal. And so we came up with a system, help him communicate the need for his wants. And he was like gay. Now I got this way to tell you, and it it would be about like five times an hour. Like he goes to refrigerator get the picture again. It’s on book is literally talking about how a nonverbal child gets so frustrated. But at the end of the day, he is able to come up with a way to tell his mom he wants cereal. So, that’s it.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
And we will have that also in the show notes about how to get the book as well. So as we are wrapping up, do you have any resources that you recommend for parents?

Jasmine Poole:
I would strongly say Autism in Black.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
Thank you. I agree wholeheartedly with those recommendation.

Jasmine Poole:
Seriously. Autism in Black and Maurice Rush Foundation. You could get on that virtual call on Wednesday nights at 9:00 PM Eastern standard time, you will be connected to some amazing parents who will be able to give you resources. You never even thought existed, because I’m one person, but together, there is a change that’s being made. So get connected to the change. And then also if your child has an IEP, there is actually resources that you could connect to, it is actually laid out. If you actually look at the IEP, those so many people miss it as actually a section on air to save resources for parents. So you can connect there too. The doctors are able to point you into some directions of resources as well, but I do think that you should get into a community of parents, whether it’s our group or a group that’s act on in the physical sense in your community.

I do challenge you to do that because that’s, that’s a great way to learn about what’s going on. If there’s any community events or autism events there April is coming up, there’s always an autism awareness from something at wherever the zoo or the children’s museum or wherever. And generally when they have those days, there are vendors there have resources as well that you can tap into. So don’t be afraid, get out and be able to connect and learn about what’s available. And those are some ways that you can do it.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
Thank you. And can you share with the audience where they can find you

Jasmine Poole:
So you can find us on Facebook and Instagram. We do have a Twitter page, but we’re not really the best on Twitter. So you get on that social media sites @Mrush R U S H foundation. You can go online to our site @ www.mrushfoundation.org. Either way you’ll be able to connect with us. You can also shoot us at email at info@mrushfoundation.org as well to connect with us, that way as well.

Maria Davis-Pierre:
Thank you so much. Thank you for being on the show. This has been a very inspiring episode. I cannot thank you enough and thank you everybody for listening and we’ll see you at the next show.

Jasmine Poole:
Yes. Thank you for having me have a wonderful day on purpose.