can someone shed light, pl? - Page 3

Thanks Lavanya for such a nice topic. Also thanks to Mona and madmadgirl for sharing your experiences. I am also a parent of an autistic boy . He was diagonsed at the age of 2 1/2 with high functioning autism which is mild form of the disorder. He has come a long way with the help of his school and therapies. I got him started on homeopathic medicines about 18 months ago which has helped him a great deal in keeping his mind calm.

Originally posted by: mona18

SG means Singapore. That's where I live and this is the place where my brother's future is at. I have to very shamely say that Im not proud of India in this matter. Every thing else about India makes me proud to be an Indian, but im sorry, when it comes to Autism, I have to say, NO! I don't mean any offence here btw.

India is still very poor in knowing such conditions. Forget Autism, many are yet unaware of Dyslexia. It's about time India learns about Autism and such other mind conditions coz it really hurts me to see that a lot of people just scoff it off by naming such children mad or what we say in Hindi ''paagal'' Sorry, I might be going a lil too personal here 😆

Coming to your question, its gonna be vague coz I have yet to watch the rest of the episodes as only 2 episodes have aired here. Autistic children will understand who are meant to be close to them for example family. He/She knows that this person is important to me but they can't really understand that who this person is for them? Is she my mother? Is he my father? They hardly understand the meaning of the words mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, uncle and friends. As for Antara going quietly away with Adi, it just means Antara needs time to learn and capture an image of Adi and how and what way he is related to her. Some Autistic children tend to be protective completely when alone with a stranger while some are their usual self

:)

Originally posted by: Madmadgirl

Thanks to Reality for the lovely inquisitive questions and to Mona for her excellent perspective - its good to keep up dialogue like this!😊

I'll give you my perspective on the query posed by Reality regarding Antara quietly going off with Aditya without complaint.

My son fortunately posesses some wariness of strangers - so I dont think he would go off with someone he had never met before - unless they could demonstrate they at least knew his name, for example.

However, completely contrary to this is the fact that he will assume adults are to be listened to - and will therefore have no understanding of a firm adult with possible bad intentions - so that makes him quite vulnerable.

My son is also very sensitive to tone of voice and noise. As a young child he would put his hand over his ears every time a fire engine or motorcycle would go past. Every birthday party was a complete nightmare when people would loudly sing "Happy Birthday" my son would cry and be really distressed. He hates arguments and loud voices and gets so upset if I have to tell off my younger 7 year old ( he is very cheeky!)

so we have to be really careful. Once upset - it is hard to console and pacify him quickly..so it takes time to calm down.

My son would point blank refuse to go into public toilets if they had a hand dryer to dry hands after washing - because the noise of the fan was so loud he would be terrified even before hearing it!

Fortunately, he has improved and become increasingly de-sensitized to a lot of these sounds, but we still get caught out now and again.

For autistic children, unpredictability is a very big issue - the more they can anticipate the better, which we do by explaining before the event takes place or by giving picture clues, eg picture of "going to toilet" then "washing hands" then "dry hands" which helps them prepare for each stage and thereby lessen the anxiety.

His current phobia is pidgeons - why? because one day, whilst feeding them, a group flapped up suddenly way too close to him and frightened the living daylights out of him...it was terrible.

Now he only has to see a pigeon and he will freeze - even i its in the middle of the road with cars coming..

Life is full of challenges - but we are prepared to meet each one and hopefully overcome!!😊

God, I talk far too much about this - sorry guys!!😳

Originally posted by: sangeeta

Thanks Lavanya for such a nice topic. Also thanks to Mona and madmadgirl for sharing your experiences. I am also a parent of an autistic boy . He was diagonsed at the age of 2 1/2 with high functioning autism which is mild form of the disorder. He has come a long way with the help of his school and therapies. I got him started on homeopathic medicines about 18 months ago which has helped him a great deal in keeping his mind calm.

He is a very smart child with excellent skills in Math, spelling, geography and computers. He is very interested in electronics stuff and keeps reading manuals to learn about operations of the equipment. If some electonic stuff is not working at home, we will have to ask him if he can take a look at it and he always knows the solution. His older sister told him that she wants to buy a laptop with certain configuration and he knew on the top of his head which laptop would fulfill all the rquirements.

We suspected that he has some disorder when he was already 2 1/2 and had no speech at all. When we were told that he has the disorder, we did not know much about autism. I got upset a lot of times when I researched on the topic but was determined that I will work through anything for my son's sake. He started getting speech therapy, occupational therapy and early childhood education at home till he turned 3. He was enrolled in the school at 3. I must say the teachers and therapists have been wonderful in getting him where he is today. No one can tell him by looking at him that he has a disorder. He has made some very good friends at school and in the neighborhood, but he still has some social issues like asking to join a group of kids to play with them. We will have to take him to them and tell them that my son wants to play with them. He is very restless and gets fixated on the things. Earlier he had no special emotions for anyone. Whoever would do his work would be his favorite. However, with time he knows that this is my family. He gives us good hugs and tells us that he will miss us when we are going somewhere.

The school has palyed a big part in his development. While watching the movie TZP and the show Aapki Antara, it really hurts me to see how teachers behave with the kids. They never try to understand a child's psychology and the behaviour. The kids are also so mean. Here the teachers love my son like anything. The ones who have been his teachers and moved to different places keep checking how he is doing and they are always ready to help him with anything even out of school. His classmates support him a lot and help him with things he takes time to do. One more thing I do not like about teachers in India is that why do they have to tell the kids if their parents made a mistake. Antara's teacher was telling her that her mom will be late as usual.

One more thing I recently discovered that he is very good at playing piano.

I can go on and on with this. Let me know if you have any queries.

Originally posted by: shijhu

hey guys the posts made me so emotional not bcoz we r discussing special children but i have seen special children in my life n dealt wid them n still in touch wid them how where when i wont discuss it but d state of mind a parent goes thru and above all d parents of special children r very brave strong n special too cuz nurturing a special child is d most tough job and above all d awareness in d society is so less or i shud rathar say almost nill that makes d parent low n emotionally upset but then we cant change d system n society but we can change ourselves i knew a kid named shona who was autistic initially when he was enrolled in a scl d parents used tos how so much of concern awareness slowly d mom asked d teachers to keep him in their day care centre he used to respond so well in scl but nxt day in d morn back to square one the teachers decided to give a surprise visit to their house n they were literally shocked to c dat d parents who were so lovable affectionate towards their child has tied him wid a rope cuz he wanted to watch tv n got violent so some parents r disgusting they feel d kids r a burden but d parents of special children r chosen by God to nurture them