When Lindsey Moreland was first diagnosed with severe autism at the age of 28 months, doctors told her parents that the little girl would likely never become an independent adult. Today, the 27-year-old River Falls, Wisconsin resident is an author of two books, an accomplished artist, a motivational speaker, and a day job.
For Lindsey herself, the term autism entered her vocabulary only when she was in the seventh grade. Before that, she only remembers always being othered at school and not knowing why. She takes great inspiration from well-known American animal behaviourist Temple Grandin who, too, is on the autism spectrum.
Her first book was written along with her aunt Linda Wagner spoke about a small incident in the life of an autistic girl who didn’t want her hair to be cut short. In the second book, titled, “Autism: A Family Learns To Live Beyond The Label”, six members of the family have chipped in to share their perspective of dealing with the condition. Besides Lindsey and Linda, it has contributions from mother Lauri, father Todd, sister Brittany and Grandmother Ida Feyereisen. Each chapter of the book speaks about the struggles of the individual author and their collective solutions as a family.
The Morelands say the book was written with the intention to inspire parents of other neurodiverse children to never lose hope and keep providing all the necessary love and support to their child. A bleak diagnosis, they say, can also be reversed sometimes with enough effort.
