How come you ask us to come at 9am and you come at 10?

Schedule and Order....

How come you ask us to come at 9am and you come at 10?

This was asked by an employee with Autism to his boss; the boss may have gotten annoyed but as the staff was oriented towards the modalities of these individuals, the statement was taken easy.

Does it not make us learn a lesson?

Yes, it does!

Also, this liking for order could be used as a strategy to teach concepts.

I would like to share my own experience...

When my son was only a six year old child, he was asked to get his Q&A done as the homework. He needed my help.

To answer one of the questions, I wrote the answer on a line, reached till the end and made a spelling mistake, cut the word and wrote on the top of the cut word and continued till the answer was complete.

My son did exactly the same.

Lesson learnt- The educator or the parent must be thorough in his or her method of teaching or training.

Follow the Facts....

Persons with Autism believe in looking at facts.

You may have many examples to share..... I am writing one with the evidence....

This was Batch II of Prayas, a lesson was given to kids where they were asked to write the names of things one needs for various activities of daily living. One of those activities was Brushing Teeth.

You have to believe me...

Three of the students wrote that we need TEETH to brush.

Mumma, you cannot scold me in the school.

Here we are.... Emotional Expression

It is a developed myth that individuals with Autism do not have emotions.

WRONG.

They do have emotions; it is the way of expression which is different from other neurotypicals.

One day, on our way back home, in the car, my younger son told me that Mumma, you can't scold me in the school. This was an expression which completely took me by surprise. He was only a 12 year old boy then.

In fact, I had reprimanded him in front of some of his classmates when they brought a complaint against my son.

Many such anecdotes made me realise that as parents, we should never talk about our kids in front of them, believe me, it is true for a non-verbal child too.

Train yourself

Equip yourself with the knowledge about Autism and train yourself to train your own child. I have many strong points to support this.

1. You can create a balance between teacher's work and its follow up, as most of the kids with Autism do not report completely; it becomes a guess work and ends up in a frustrated state.

2. You can easily build upon the strengths of your child as you have learnt the methods of training.

Eg. I had never understood as why is it important for a child to know the body parts but my training made me understand the same.

A child should know where does he stand in the space; in Psychology it is called "Perception of Position in Space" and it is related to understanding the environment at a concrete level and later in to building words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs.

A WORD will always be written as WORD not as WROD... right?

Simplicity and Autism

Are these onion flavored apples Muma?

When my younger son was only 5 years old, one day, during the busy schedule of a rushed morning, I had cut the apples with a knife which was earlier used to cut onions, asked me...Are these onion flavored apples Muma?

There I was, guilty of the act but thought that how simple is he, a neurotypical would have shouted or thrown the same.

Many more anecdotes..will be sharing soon.

My kids have been my teachers- My main source of Empowerment

In all the forums, where ever I go, I introduce myself as a mother of two kids with Autism; a simple reason, I would have been a Chemist instead, if I had not had Dhawal and Ujjwal.

Life has been a roller coaster all along, constant ups-downs, falls, slips and misses, takes and retakes, happiness and tears, aggression and humility, openness and aloofness, frustrations and successes, think of any emotion, it was there. What a mixed bag.

I still feel that I am an empowered parent; why do I say so.

Here it goes, my kids taught me to be honest, to be truthful and never lie. Say what you feel. Do not be materialistic.

Let humility be your virtue.

Do what is right.

Stay focused.

Do not be demanding.

This is what has empowered me as a human and I am proud of it.