Cricket Barrientos and her husband, a Phoenix, Arizona police officer, created the nonprofit organization Sounds of Autism, Inc. to raise awareness by bringing a voice to autism. They started their program in 2011 and became a 501c3 in 2012.

Cricket said, “Autism is the leading epidemic among our children. One in 59 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with autism according to the CDC in 2018.”

Their son, Landon has autism, but that was only ONE catalyst to start the organization. “It started with sesame seeds,” Cricket said. “It’s crazy. My dad was on his journey to his death diagnosed with Cancer when I first started seeing the seeds.” She noticed a pattern.

Cricket was the General Manager at Ruby Tuesday at the time, so finding sesame seeds didn’t surprise her, at first. But she noticed a pattern. She found seeds where they shouldn’t be, and then she’d meet someone with a special message.

“Angels surround me,” Cricket said. “After finding all sorts of seeds and hearing more and more people talk about autism, I knew I needed to do something so I started a Facebook Page, “Growing with Autism seven Seeds.”

Then, I started finding the coins.” Each coin held a unique significance to her. She said the quarter represented money and every time she found a quarter Sounds of Autism seemed to grow. You may be wondering what seeds and coins have to do with Sounds of Autism. The Video link below will explain more.

Cricket said, “Last year, Landon was going through a mental breakdown at 15 years old. At that same time, there was an incident and the Buckeye Arizona police detained a classmate of Landon’s who also had Autism and he was injured. The incident went viral. “These two experiences showed us the need for our RESPONDERS UNITE campaign training our community and Sworn Police Officers about the Autism Community and their needs. People don’t understand that someone with autism processes the world differently. Sounds of Autism’s Programs will help educate our society how to RESPOND especially during a crisis situation.”

The name for the organization, Sounds of Autism came from the sounds of music, because Cricket is a musician and writes music to educate about Autism, but also for the sounds the people with autism make. Some of those sounds may seem aggressive to untrained professionals. People with autism use a method called stimming to help them cope with everyday stress and anxiety. Stimming often involves the flapping of their hands and special sounds, typically a humming noise to help naturally calm their stress.

“People with autism need to have systems and processes that work for them. Our organization helps the families through love and support, in turn, preparing the child with autism to have the resources they need when the time comes for them to integrate into society as adults,” Cricket said.

Cricket said Sounds of Autism is working on a program to help police better understand how to respond when they face someone with autism. This program is called Responders Unite. This program will be a two-hour training program, given to sworn police officers, teaching them to become AMBASSADORS of our program. These Ambassadors will take their training into the classrooms to educate students with Autism and Special Needs how to RESPOND during a Crisis Intervention. In the future, our program will also offer mini-video reminders officers can watch during briefings before going on patrol so that we continue to bring awareness to Autism as the Epidemic begins hitting the streets.

“Videos are the best and fastest way to reach more people,” she said. We have launched videos that have gone out to over 600,000 viewers on social media. “We are building a team to work around the world and will do what we can to bring awareness and share resources as we grow.”

Sounds of Autism was just recently sought out by a Foundation that will be announced September 7th, 2019 at the Launch REVEAL Red Carpet Party at the OdySEA Aquarium Courtyard Arizona from 6-9 pm. This foundation will co-join 2 other organizations to bring a Cause and Solution based model to supporting those with Mental Health issues, Specializing in Autism. We are excited to be on this new journey so we are able to broaden our support to our First Responders and Military with positive mental health solutions and coping methods to help overcome the daily Stress and Anxiety they endure as well as our Autistic community and the stress and anxiety they endure so that we continue to bring solutions and support to both communities especially when they connect during a crisis intervention.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Nothing is ever easy. Working as a non-profit with little to no funding is a challenge in itself. We do not spend our funding on Marketing so the people in need of our help may not know we exist. This is also an issue with receiving funding. When businesses offer funding they tend to pass on the smaller non-profits when it comes to offering grants or sponsorship. Our awareness campaign has offered education and awareness to families that realize their child has Autism when they understand the signs and symptoms of Autism. Early intervention offers kids with Autism the opportunity to live a more typical life so understanding that the child has Autism is one of the most important steps in starting the process in getting help.

We’d love to hear more about your organization.
We have built curriculum for many different focus areas of raising a child with Autism.

Sounds of Autism – Our mission is to integrate families and kids of Autism back into society through Love and Support. 

Programs that were built to support these communities are the following:

Life on a Spectrum – 45-minute interactive presentation to teach 5 simple steps of becoming a COMMUNITY RESPONDER of AUTISM in hopes that our community will embrace the Autism community and support the cause.

Responders Unite – 2.5-hour presentation to educate Law Enforcement about Autism through a parent’s perspective and practice solutions as to how both communities should respond during a crisis situation. These officers will become Ambassadors and bring our program into the classrooms throughout Schools, Mental Health facilities and community centers that house the Autism community.

Virtual and Mobile Life Skills and R

esources – Bringing vetted resources to our community through Support Groups and adding them to our Social Media Campaign and on our website.

Families on the Spectrum – Community outings scheduled to offer the Families of Autism an opportunity to connect with others raising children with Autism and integrate back into society through these types of events.

Siblings of Autism – Bringing outings to the siblings of Autism to help support those who live with a brother or sister with Autism. These outing focus on positive mental health solutions for kid who may have to sacrifice a part of their life to support a child with a disability. We want to ensure these siblings understand how important they are and give the attention to them exclusively during these outings to offer emotional support they may need being a sibling of a brother or a sister with a disability.

Notes of the Spectrum – Our Music campaign to bring awareness to the importance of Music Therapy and using Music as a tool to educate our society about Autism. Healing techniques

People are following our organization all over the world. We have built an audience of viewers over 1 million and have been able to support families in finding diagnoses, resources and awareness to help educate people on how to RESPOND to the Autism community.

What were you like growing up?
I feel that my life experiences have prepared me for everything I will be responsible for as the Executive Director of this NEW foundation focusing on Mental Health, Specializing in Autism. I have worked with and supported kids with special needs my whole life. I have been responsible for managing multiple businesses throughout my life. At 15 I owned my own cleaning business and continued to create start-up businesses as I entered into my 20’s and on.

I was not a fan of school to be honest. I liked to learn by watching others and challenging myself especially during situations that had a lot of stress. I believe in Angels and have always felt I was surrounded by people who had a purpose for being a part of my life. Some came and went as they offered me suggestions, support or gave me confidence in making decisions. I know some do not believe this and that is ok. I know what I have witnessed and what others around me have witnessed and the ones who were on the journey with me have been in awe of what happens when these angels appear.

Contact Info:

• Address: 4366 N 156th Drive
  Goodyear, Az 85395
• Website: www.soundsofautism.org
• Phone: 6305187745
• Email: cricket@soundsofautism.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Soundsofautism.org