Summary: <a href="http://specialmouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/autism-awareness-e1428805554677.png"></a> We continue our month-long celebration of Autism Awareness with today's feature. I'm chatting with Tricia Ballad, a published fiction author, Disney fan and Autism Mom. We're talking about her family's recent trip to Walt Disney World and she introduces me to a workshop she's created for parents of children recently diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder and other Autism-related diagnoses. The Autism Parents' Starter Kit includes a series of video discussions on parenting a child with autism, printable resources, and an interactive discussion area where parents can ask questions and connect with other parents. It will be available April 15 on Udemy.com. Tricia has generously offered a 50% discount to the Autism Parents' Starter Kit for Special Mouse listeners! You can access it <a href="https://www.udemy.com/autism-parents-starter-kit/?couponCode=SpecialMouse">HERE.</a> Mousekeeping: The Special Mouse Community will be having its first Disney Parks meet-up next month at Walt Disney World! We’re meeting at the Contemporary Resort’s Contempo Café on Friday, May 22 from 4 to 6 PM. Yes, this is the same day as the Disney Side 24-hour event at the Magic Kingdom! So, if you’ll be up before dawn to attend that event and you find yourself starting to drag just a little in the late afternoon, head on over to the Contemporary and hang out with us in the air-conditioning for a while. I would love to meet you in real life! Second, Thanks to all of you who have supported the Kickstarter crowdfunding project I’m running, with either a pledge or a share on social media or in many cases, both. This project is to help publish my upcoming book, Walt Disney World with Autism: A Special Needs Guide! A book which, by the way, I am really surprised hasn’t been written by anyone yet, considering that there are soooo many families with kids on the Autism Spectrum that love WDW or are anxious about visiting WDW -- or both! <a href="http://specialmouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Twitter-Post-e1428805421919.png"></a> You know, I never really talk about it here on the show, but it does cost a bit of money to produce and deliver a podcast like this one – which I love doing and will always provide to listeners free of charge – but, it doesn’t leave me with a lot of extra money lying around to pay for the expenses involved in self-publishing a book! There’s stuff like professional editing, and the cover art (which, by the way, was created by the very talented Mr. Danny Lawless from the Magic Our Way podcast – shout out to Danny!) and the book will need to be formatted for print and indexed, etc. So, it actually costs several thousand dollars to do this thing! The wonderful thing about pledging to help with Kickstarter is that instead of just sending me, Kathy Kelly, a check for 10 or 20 or 50 dollars, you will earn some pretty cool rewards for backing the book! There’s everything from Safety ID Stickers for Kids, created by an autism mom, to sensory-friendly kids costumes from Mom Approved Costumes, to exclusive sneak-peek chapters of the book that I’ll send to your inbox, to personal autism theme park coaching with me via Skype… there are just too many goodies to mention here. And, of course, you can pre-order a copy of the book itself, which is the main “reward.” So please, I urge you to visit <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/522828044/walt-disney-world-with-autism-a-special-needs-guid">Kickstarter.com</a> and make a pledge to Walt Disney World with Autism: A Special Needs Guide today. The campaign will end May 7th and here’s the big thing – for those of you who aren’t familiar with Kickstarter. If I do not raise the full amount that I’m seeking, the campaign fails and I get nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. No one’s credit card gets charged and, frankly,
