From Autism with Love :) < 3

Since a while I have been wanting to write this post just found some free time and thought I shall grab and utilise this time to pour out my feelings and experiences I had from working with the children with Autism for 2 years, along with clearing some myths and misconceptions that people have when it comes to any mental illness especially autism.

Photo by: Sneeh`

Initially, I had joined the autism centre as a volunteer for 3 months in 2012. My roles for volunteering varied from accompanying the students and guiding them through activities such as dolphin bay, golf, horseback riding, etc. Also guiding them inside the classrooms and assisting the teacher. It was a very beautiful experience where i found that everyday was a different experience. Never got boring, always something interesting, challenging and a different experience even if it was the same student every day or a different one…  

There is a reason why these children are called special... and you will only find out once you get to spend time with them, get an up close experience with them. Each child is very different from the other.

In all my excitement to share my experiences...before i forget, let me tell you in brief 1^st what exactly is autism about and its symptoms.... etc. (i will not be sharing more information on Autism here as I am writing this article mostly to describe my experience from the Autism centre.)

      So what is Autism?

 Autism (also referred as Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD) is a complex neurological - developmental disability that usually starts/appears during the 1^st 3 years of life, which results in social impairments, communication difficulties. Autism is defined by a certain set of behaviours and is “spectrum disorder” that affects individuals differently and to varying degrees. There are various levels of Autism, such as the mildest level of Autism is Aspergers.

Till date, many types of research are still being done to find out what exactly could be a cause of autism, so that once the cause is found it would be easier to prevent autism at the earliest possible signs or stages. Increased awareness on Autism/ ASD can really help families.

How do we know if someone has Autism?

There are many signs and symptoms of Autism, some of which are:

1. ·      Eye contact: the child/individual with autism cannot give eye contact.
2.     Do not respond to their name call: if you call an individual by their name and they don’t give their attention to you by looking at you, that’s a sign or symptom of autism.
3. ·      They can’t understand social cues: these children have difficulty to understand how others may feel or think as they find it difficult to understand social cues such as tone of voice or facial expressions. So they may come across to strangers as ones who lack empathy, or rude.
4. ·      Many children in autism, like repetitiveness in their routine, such as repetitively rocking, or twirling. Some of these children like things in a certain routine that they have grown accustomed to.
5. ·      Sometimes children with autism can also be found to be hyper on a certain level, such as running around aimlessly, etc.
6. .      You may sometimes find these children displaying "self-abusive"/ "attention seeking" behaviours such as head-banging or biting themselves or the other, etc. 

Sometimes these behaviours (point numbers 4, 6) may occur due to a certain inner disturbance that is not in the child's control and the child is not able to express what is causing them inner pain or disturbance.

Some Misconceptions (autism misunderstood):

When I first told people that i was volunteering/working at autism centre, they looked at me with pity saying- it must be difficult working with them, don’t they hurt you?, They are mentally retarded yea? etc.

Let me tell you that...

1.    Children with autism are not mentally retarded; there is a big difference between being mentally retarded/ disabled and autism. All autistic children are not mentally disabled.

2.    Children with autism are not dumb, or being autistic does not mean losing intelligence

3.    Autism is not a viral disease!! It does not spread!

4.    All children with autism are not violent.

So now coming back to my experience from autism centre...

Personally, I had a lot of fun working with the children with autism as a volunteer and later as a special ed. teacher. I was working with the youngest age group- 4 to 6 years of age. All these children are very unique in many ways than one: they all differ in their levels of autism, ability to socialise, ability to understand and recognise emotions. They all differ in their interests/hobbies (yes they have hobbies like you and me), they differ in their level of patience and skills.... etc.

But they all have one thing in common, they all understand, experience and need and learn the best from the language of LOVE. I have experienced this when I was personally a special Ed. teacher, I tried everything to calm my students down except for trying to work from the heart with love and kindness. However, once I started to deal with them in a loving manner with more understanding and empathy, they started to get more calm and listened and followed instructions better (of course patience is required too), some of them also were trying to express their love back to me and my colleagues (they get very adorable when they do that).

It’s not just normal children or people like us who need love; even children with autism need Love. We all have come to this planet earth not just to learn a lesson unlearnt, but also to give and discover love.

Working with autistic children is not only challenging but also helps us grow more in self-discovery; that is: along with being a teacher and a caregiver for the children in the classroom (such as- managing their behaviours and helping them cope and develop skills or helping them doing things appropriately, etc.); I myself got a chance to see things in different perspective, to be more understanding and empathetic, my heart started to soften and open up more, I started to see a different side of me every day. Along with embracing every aspect of the child, and accepting the child the way he/she is, I started to embrace and accept my own inner self more, as I started to realise more about myself as well. 

The best part about working with children with autism is, seeing your own student growing and improving and being happy (most importantly) in front of your eyes, it is tremendously rewarding. Seeing the little-little changes and improvements in my students is what kept me motivated to keep working with even more hard work and enthusiasm added, it’s the best feeling ever when you see a parent happy, with tears of happiness and hopes in their eyes, seeing their child get better. It’s actually a team effort on each child, with the teachers, therapists, education unit, and the parents included. 

Autism is a field of trial and errors, where the same method that worked for one child does not always work on the other child. If one child learns best in a playful setting, another child may not find the playful learning method as effective; maybe we may need less play and more firm method with that child.

What I found from my experience is that the more creative and fun you get with children with autism (especially younger age group), the faster and better the child learns, the levels of fun may vary depending on the child. All these children are very special and they have most chances of improvement if their therapeutic treatments start (are working on) from a very young age.

At the centre where i worked the child got mostly a one on one attention, the child to teacher ratio was 2:1 (2 children per teacher), so we had 4 students and 2 teachers in a class. My students were the youngest age group and were the most active amongst all the other students of the centre. This made them more interesting and challenging to work with since we were dealing with the early learners. They all required more attention... and I saw a lot of improvements in all of my students in the time span of first 6 months due to fun and love being added in our sessions with them.

All in all, it was a great experience working with children with autism and i would love to go back to working with them at least for another year after my masters. However, I would like to suggest one thing to all those who are working with children with autism that do include fun socialisation inclusion activities for your students such as buddy system, or 30min inclusion play sessions, etc; as it is very helpful for them, especially when they interact with children of their own age group. 

I would suggest all of you out there to volunteer at your nearby autism or special needs centres and feel the experience; it will change a lot of things for you in a good way.

I would like to end my experience with a couple of quotes that I relate to, and that has inspired me to see autism with a different perspective...

“I don’t need Autism Awareness; Autism Acceptance will do just fine.” 

“If a child cannot learn in a way we teach... we must teach in a way the child can learn”- Dr. Ivar Lovaas. 

“A child with Autism is not ignoring you; they are simply waiting for you to enter their world.”

PS: You are very welcome to comment on any of the articles on this blog or share. Thank you :)