How a child with special needs can excel in her/his own life, finding the answers that they were looking for, as guidance, translated…
Although I’d gotten into contact with many parents of autistic children, but I’d not heard someone who’s autistic, shared her/his life experiences yet, and so, I’d used the book ordering system of my bookstore, to gather as much information on the subject as I possibly can, to try to understand, what does autism, mean to the autistic? What are some ways, that we can, help make their lives better?
I think, the problem that worries me the most is, if one day, Daddy Strong and I are gone, can Strong make it on his own?
In accompanying Strong in his slow-to-grow processes, watching children his age, or younger, started running by us like the hare, it’d made me feel defeated very easily, and, at these moments, I’m in, dire need of examples of success, to boost me up, that way, I can, keep on having faith, and, embrace the possibility, that Strong can one day, survive without us.
a child with autism…photo from online…
helping this young child to develop a skill that may prove to be useful or helpful in his life later on…photo from online
It would be best, if there are, examples of how someone with autism turned her/his life into a success using her/his autism.
And so, I’d chosen to read, “The Anthropologist on Mars”, with one of the observations on a person with autism—Temple Grandin, “My mind doesn’t work the same way as yours: Seeing the Outstanding Characteristics of People with Autism”, she was one of the numbered children with autism who grew up to be adults, and became a professor of animal science, a writer, and a lecturer.
Temple in her book used herself as a research subject, as she examined how her brain worked, I’d originally thought that there would be a ton of hard-to-understand jargons in the book, but other than having a clear thought process, she also had that strong sense of humor too, used an assortment of metaphors in the book, at the same time, described her own experiences with the outside world, along with the social interactions that other autistic persons had too, described how the autistic person isn’t like how s/he showed her/himself, uninterested in the world around, but instead, it’s because of the information overload that caused them to not know how to interact. That the autistic aren’t without feelings, nor are the, useless, that we should, try to focus on the individual characteristics of the autistic person, instead of thinking, “this is a bad quality of autism”, but “how can we develop this trait more?”
Temple Grandin, standing by the design she’d made for the cattle, photo from online…
In the very end, she’d mentioned that “the brain can be altered throughout one’s life”, that we should, not give up, and hope for the surprises in the future, to guide the parents of autistic children, to continually train their young, to have the life skills they will need and benefit from having one day, and observe how one’s child processes the information? Is it language? Image? Or patterns? To list out a set of varied methods that the child uses to think, and to find the related occupations, to use it as a guide for parents and children.
I’d recalled how Strong loved observing the details of things, loved playing those games with the drawings on cards, and, I believe, that helping him develop his image-memory, might be a good direction to go in.
And so, this mother drew from the example of a woman who was autistic, who’d, found something that interested her, and became a professional in her realm, to give herself the hopes of a better future for her own son, and, helping these special needs children find out what they’re interested in, what they’re good at, is the key, to helping them succeed in their lives!
Life, the Obstacle Course 