Kylie Kelce — wife of former Philadelphia Eagles star center Jason Kelce — is working with the Eagles Autism Foundation to raise awareness for the neurodiverse community.
With school almost out for kids, Kylie Kelce, a mother of three, told Scripps News that a new resource from HP called “Print Pals” can help cater to children needing to stay stimulated in perhaps a different way.
“In an effort during the summer months, and unstructured time, to sort of encourage hands-on activity, HP has provided Print Pals. It is an outstanding resource for not only any individual who wants to interact with it, but specifically the neurodiverse community,” Kelce said live on Scripps News. “It's an awesome, fun, creative activity that I know our girls will be doing throughout the summer months.”
Print Pals help kids imagine, color and construct puppets out of printed sheets of paper with different colorable features and accessories.
Kelce said her mission to help autistic kids runs deep.
She was inspired by her autistic friend Tim, with whom she grew up.
“We didn't even know that we were putting strategies in place, or sort of managing behaviors, when we were growing up, we were just hanging out with Tim. When I ended up moving on into the workplace after college, I went to work one-to-one with individuals on the spectrum and it fueled my passion even more,” she said.
Kelce said she was able to progress further with the Eagles Autism Foundation, created by Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie. Lurie has an autistic brother who helped inspire the project.
With Neurodiversity Pride Day being this Sunday, Kelce hopes to strike down misconceptions about people on the spectrum and help raise awareness.
“You might meet people who are neurodiverse and have no idea. It's not glaringly obvious in every case, and I think that it's important to remember that when you've met one person on the spectrum, you've met one person on the spectrum,” she said. “Everyone is different and unique and to just maintain an open-minded and sort of accepting approach in situations will get you really far.”
Parents and kids can find Print Pals at HP.com/printpals.
