Being proud of yourself

flickr.com

Many people believe autistic children can not go to college, somehow we think they are not able to keep up with the demands of school and that they are not capable of becoming independent. My daughter, which is away at school has been reading my blogs and the other day was telling me that in her school there is one student that autistic. He is very kind, sweet, always holds the doors for others, but from his body language she was able to see that he was different as he rocks his body and by the way he asks some questions. He is very popular in school and everyone loves him, I understand that its can be easy, but I am sure he is getting help and so far according to my daughter he is doing fine.

Because autism is growing in America, there are many studies being done in the hope of helping them become independent and successful in society. It has been a pleasure for me to blog about autism and learn how autism is positively changing. The autism spectrum is big and among them there are many that have gone far in life and prove that they can be part of society. Autism can be very challenging, but many "aspergers" children can go really far in life as they very brilliant individuals.

Trying new food

flickr.com

Studying the five senses in class has been a wonderful experience. Every week one of the senses is introduced by the teacher. As a motivation she brings something to get their attention. For the hearing sense she played the piccolo, the sense of touch she read a book on hands and the students learned the different things they can do with their hands. This week we are doing taste. She brought lemons, apples, oranges, bananas, and pears. Each kid were given a piece to try, to our surprise 2 students loved lemons and ate their pieces as if they were pieces of candy later they ask for more. Among the students there is one in particular that is hard for him to try new food which is common for some autistic children.

William's mom has really hard time when it comes to introduce new food to him. He likes donuts, crackers, popcorn, cookies and bananas. If you notice the pattern it has to do with texture and how food feels in the mouth. He has made a lot of improvements on his selection of food, but we have to be persistence. Well that day he ate a little piece of apple and some orange segments, we all clapped for William and he smiled. Ms. Olson, the teacher takes her time with him everyday during breakfast and lunch to make sure he tries something new everyday, there is not success all the time, but most of the time he tries and he is eating more varieties, Patience conquers all.

Finding time to chill

flickr.com
Joan is a young mother with an autistic kid, he is 7 years old, she is 27. She brings the kid everyday to school, she stopped working when he was diagnosed autistic at 2. She is not the typical young mother with a kid. She is always tired and never goes out. Bringing the child to school is a breather for her as she has some time off during the school hours. She is a good mother and never complain, but its getting to her.

Taking care of a special need child is not an easy job. Autistic kids can be challenging, needing understanding and patience at all time. Its very important for parents to take some time off and not to feel guilty when going to the movies or out to eat, on the contrary it is good to do things that make you feel good and recharge energy for which the kid is going to appreciate better.

Talking to Joan the other day I suggested that she should go back to her hobby of painting or maybe find a part time job, she would make a little money and feel that she is making something good for herself.

Autism and life skill

Teaching autistic children life skills to me are more important than academic skills. Autistic kids have difficulty dressing up, eating or trying new food, writing, grooming, tying shoe laces, zipping up jackets etc. This simple tasks can be very frustrating for them. The goal at school combine with parents is to work toward getting the child independtent and not to depend so much on adults.

The school and home have to provide the proper setting in which the kid would feel confident and supported by the adults around him/her. Fine motor skills activities are one of the basic activities that can help them. For any child with disabilities especially autistic children the simple act of holding an object is a monumental task. Eye-hands coordination skills is not totally developed, so easy activities such as, paying with sand, water, toys would set the base line for them to work toward reaching their goals, always remembering that every child is unique and that we all learn at our own pace, patience and tolerance is the key.

Vaccines

Newsweek Magazine published an article on February which states basically that vaccines for children are safe and that many scientific studies had found that they are safe for children.

Many parents believe that the measles vaccine causes autism in children and that the issue has not been taken seriously. Vaccines are link with autism, but it has not been proved. The truth is that every child is unique and perhaps some children are more hypersensitive to others to the mercury in the vaccine. The makers of the vaccines keep saying that the issue takes time and money away for other types of research to find the real causes of autism in children, parents will keep questioning , but what is also true is that money is everything and that the makers are not willing to loose any.

It is hard to sit down

It is hard for autistic children to sit down when their minds is going 300m/h. Its commons for some autistic children to suffer from hyper- activity disorder. I always try to give people the visual just by imagining if you pour a jar of aunts on your head, how does it feel? Well the same is for children with autism. People tell them sit down and be still, easy to say, but in their minds the simple act of sitting down for a period of time is impossible. In my class they get a special pillow which makes them feel relax, but it does not last long.

A weighted vest is also used to help them reduce anxiety and attention to task. It is difficult for people to understand children with this problem, teachers and professionals work together so the children can have a better productive life in school.

Fear of the internet

Xenophobic is an abnormal fear or hatred of the strange or foreign.
The piece I saw in utube today showed the rapid grow of the Internet and technology in general. It talked of how fast technology is going and how many people are depending on it for their everyday life. So, are we xenophobic? I would say I am. On the other hand, for young people they grew up with it. Talking to my daughter the other day about the topic she goes, "well mommy I would be lost without my computer, I grew up with it" and she is right. I used computers because I have to, in today's world everything is on line, it facilitate people's life, but before we used to go about without some much technology and we did just fine.

Technology is growing a fast rate and its scary, whenever something comes up, a year later is old and outdated. Just going through my things the other day I found my old Polaroid camera and I was "omg" I used to love it, I would hate to get rid of it, digital camera the size of deck of cards is what is in now, so I still learning how some things work when already something new is out, "all of this is too fast for me"

The short video relates to the readings because it has evolucionated the same way as the radio did. When the radio came out there were not regulations from the government, so was the Internet, but copyrights and restrictions have made difficult for people to have access to every sites there are.