It was already 11am, they would be here any moment. I had got a call earlier this week that there is a special child who needs help. I didn't have much information about the child, though I did wonder which category the child would fit in. I needed to meet him first.
Since my mobility is restricted to moving very little in the house with the crutches, wishing they wouldn't see me in this condition Sigh!...I heard the doorbell, and carefully opened the door. I saw him standing behind his mother. . He seemed slightly excited, and looked eager to come inside. As I greeted both of them, he quickly came inside and sat across me and started fidgeting with his hands and slowly kept moving up and down the sofa . I knew the issue , but I wanted to know what the parent had to say. Its important to understand, what they feel being a parent to a special need child and what they are doing about it and how they are coping with this issue.
Little Mayank has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, which they got to know few years back. His behavior was very distinct, he was bouncing up and down the sofa, very excited , banging his head on the sofa at regular intervals and making loud noises. For a parent or teacher it's tough task to comprehend what goes inside the mind of a child, a child with autism. Its not easy to understand, but the child needs to make efforts to express what he or she feels. Its a lot of hard work put in by the parents , the therapist and the teachers and with their support the child gradually starts learning. These special kids have an amazing IQ's.
Sitting beside me was a concerned mother and who was feeling a little too overwhelmed by everything that she was dealing at present in her life. The first thought of a parent is how will the child cope up in this world. Would he able to survive, will someone will be able to take care of him/her. How would the child live life without them. All that matters to the parents is, the child be able to look after himself. And then Mayanks mother said " I have done what I could and am still doing. But I genuinely need someone to guide me, help me, take my child and get him connected to the emotions that he feels and which he is unable to communicate as there isnt any speech or words with which he can express...his training has been delayed ". The irony being, children with autism are unable to share their emotions, feeling and most of them have speech impairment..so how do they express themselves in words. All I wanted to was to give this mother an assurance that all will be well one day, which I did.
Autism is the presence of a distinctive impairment in the nature and quality of social and communicative development. Their impairment distinguishes them from other neuro-developmental disorders as well. These children are distinct than children with mental retardation their distinction lies in their impairment of social communicative development. These children are rarely like other children. They often want to be left alone to play on their own. They observe, imitate, approach and interact with their age mates less than their developing peers. They either engage themselves in one sided physical or scripted play or respond solely to adults.They are great at classification and categorization. For eg. if you hand them a random list of things having some similarities in their attribute, a child with autism can easily categorize then in one group.
Little Mayank has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, which they got to know few years back. His behavior was very distinct, he was bouncing up and down the sofa, very excited , banging his head on the sofa at regular intervals and making loud noises. For a parent or teacher it's tough task to comprehend what goes inside the mind of a child, a child with autism. Its not easy to understand, but the child needs to make efforts to express what he or she feels. Its a lot of hard work put in by the parents , the therapist and the teachers and with their support the child gradually starts learning. These special kids have an amazing IQ's.
Sitting beside me was a concerned mother and who was feeling a little too overwhelmed by everything that she was dealing at present in her life. The first thought of a parent is how will the child cope up in this world. Would he able to survive, will someone will be able to take care of him/her. How would the child live life without them. All that matters to the parents is, the child be able to look after himself. And then Mayanks mother said " I have done what I could and am still doing. But I genuinely need someone to guide me, help me, take my child and get him connected to the emotions that he feels and which he is unable to communicate as there isnt any speech or words with which he can express...his training has been delayed ". The irony being, children with autism are unable to share their emotions, feeling and most of them have speech impairment..so how do they express themselves in words. All I wanted to was to give this mother an assurance that all will be well one day, which I did.
By this time mayank had come and sat besides me, wanted to gain my approval in the first instance. These small gestures help them to convey what they want from us. But this a learnt behavior, they don't do it with every person they meet. Most of their behavior is learnt through reward pattern. They are made to do a certain task and then rewarded once the task is accomplished. I looked at him and decided I needed to start the sessions at the earliest. It was time for them to leave. As Mayank's mom stood up, I saw her eyes were moist and she told me " families are also made in heaven, what we get in life is so precious. People used to envy the way I brought up my kids. But with the birth of my third child (suffering with autism). The pride that I had, just went away. Am doing my best for my child, but somehow the reality dawned there isn't any prefect family.." .For a moment I was speechless.To see your own child going through the pain, its one of the painful realities of life for any parent. And I realized this has been the sole reason for why I got into helping kids with special needs.
This is life...the karmic connection are there for us to sort in this life...and learn and endure what we can do about the present situation.On a good note...here are some of the people who have had autism or autism characteristics ...Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Beethovan, Mozart to name a few. If they could conquer their disorder, why not anyone with this disorder.
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