Game Changer

In this episode Dr. Annette Nunez and Maylene Visaya chat with Anothony Ianni, motivational speaker, author, coach, and first known individual with autism to play basketball for Michigan State, a D1 University. Anthony shares his story of what it was like growing up with autism during a time when little was known about the disorder. He shares how he overcame many obstacles from struggling with academics to being bullied and how his love for playing basketball changed all of that. Basketball taught Anthony how to navigate his world from being a good teammate, a good person, and having a purpose in life. His passion and love for the sport is what drove him to play for Michigan State University. Anthony's story is not only inspirational, but it is a game changer as to how individuals with autism think, feel, and what they are capable of achieving. MINDSHIFT (takeaways) Keep the expectations high for you kids, let your kids fly, push them up, push them as high as they can go. Some of them may not make it, but at the end of the day they're going to make it a hell of a lot higher than we thought they could go! If one person with autism can take one giant step in life, they are higher than where they were and where people originally thought they could go. It's time for society to realize that an individual with autism is more than just a label and more than just a stat.

You can listen to Game Changer online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Game Changer is an episode from Behind the Breakthroughs by Annette Nunez.

This episode is 41:51 long.

This episode was published on Jan 14, 2020.

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