meet the author
About Kuri Yasuno
An immigrant from Japan at five years old, Kuri Yasuno arrived on Long Island, NY with her older brother and parents. After graduating Georgetown University, Kuri followed her love of creativity and worked in Marketing and Website Production at the Discovery Health Channel and the National Geographic Channel. With the birth of her children, Kuri switched gears to be a stay at home mom, caring for her now, two teenage boys.
When her older son was diagnosed with being on the autism spectrum, Kuri took her creative spirit and her positive mindset to focus on his education and social skills development. Kuri is writing this book to share her experiences as a mom of a special-needs child with humorous anecdotes and honest introspection. Her hope is for her story to inspire awareness, understanding, inclusion and especially kindness.
Inclusion
Inclusion is not just about letting someone stand in the circle, but rather really embracing the person and inviting them to share in the experience. So many times, I have watched my son be included in a group but is still an outsider. Whether it is because he does not have the ability or skills needed to involve himself or the others don’t know how draw him into the activity. It’s a two-way street and I hope one day the gap gets closer and all of us will try harder to make inclusion a shared experience.
Pause
Everyone has something going on. It’s important to consider that all people have a reason for how they react in situations. I hope that as a society we learn to take a breath before judging and give a moment’s pause before making assumptions. Maybe this person is having a hard day. Maybe this person is on the spectrum. Maybe this person is just unkind but let’s first give the person, the situation, the benefit of the doubt and consider kindness as the initial response.