Carina Morillo spoke on a TED Talk about her son Ivan, October 2016. In her lecture, she talked about how her son was diagnosed with autism at two and a half years old. Her and her husband couldn’t use the internet to find ways to help their son, so she took matters into her own hands. She observed her son and found that he responded to images and routines. They gave him an Ipad and Morillo took pictures to teach Ivan about the world around him. As he got older she started to find ways to teach Ivan to be independent. One method she used, was taking sending Ivan to a nearby grocery store, where the owner awaited him every thursday afternoon to stalk the water bottle shelves.
Since Ivan had a connection to patterns, having the weekly routine of going to the shop brought about independence. One of every fifty nine babies have autism. According to the National Autistic Society, 2.8 million people, live a life where autism is present. There are many ways to treat autism, but a person has to understand what autism is, find ways to help, a child or an adult, who is facing autism, and through helping someone with autism, a person must be able to be flexible to change their teaching style.
Knowing what autism is, is a great first step to helping teach a child or adult with autism. According to Autism speaks, autism is a wide range of symptoms including, social skills, behavioral patterns, and verbal/ nonverbal communication. Most people who experience autism are diagnosed by the age of two years old. Most autism occurs during pregnancy complications or genetics.There are many symptoms that come with autism, which include the following: less eye contact, don’t respond to their name, they choose to be isolated, aggression, lack of language skills (very nonverbal), and slow learning abilities. Since many kids have autism, a parent or guardian should not leave the kid or adult to be isolated and alone. Instead the parent or guardians should find and create techniques that will help the person with autism learn and grow.
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A man by the name of Stuart Duncan was born with Autism and so was his oldest son. Duncan states in one of his TED Talks, that he grew up learning how to overcome his autism and he wanted the same experience for his son. His son loved to play Minecraft, but other kids bullied him and would demolish everything Duncan’s son tried to create. Duncan didn’t like seeing what his son had to go through just to play his game, so he created Autcraft. Autcraft was made so that kids with autism had a safe place to go and to learn.
Duncan didn’t stop there, however, he made the website more educational toward Autistic kids and he made the website more intentional. He would place things in the game that taught autistic kids how to read, speak, and write. Through Autcraft, over eight thousand kids after eight years were using the website to learn how to speak and to have a safe place to go to. There are other ways to help kids with autism however. One way of helping someone with autism is through patterns. If you live out each day in a pattern that the kid or adult with autism can adapt to, it is a great way for them to learn to do things on their own as well as safely.
According to help guide, putting together a schedule is a great way to help kids and adults with autism because they are easily able to pick up something that is repeated everyday. Another way to help a kid or adult with autism is to be involved and engaged in who they are. Help Guide also talks about, “being Consistent.” Through being there for your kid or adult and constant interaction will help the person not slip into the autistic state of isolation. Finding methods to help a child or adult with autism is super important, but it is also important to adapt your own methods into the routine to fit the child or adult you are working with.
Through working at Parkside church for almost five years in the Children’s Department, I have met a few kids who have autism. One in particular who I still help with is Eyan. Eyan is five years old and has Autism spectrum disorder. He can’t communicate using words and he likes to play by himself most of the time. If something changes in the schedule, he falls apart because he loves routine.
Working with Eyan I noticed that he pays attention through what he hears the kids doing. He’ll be looking down, playing with the cars, and yet, if he hears a kid doing something that is out of the normal, like getting angry or not playing with the toys like everyone else, Eyan looks up and comes over to me and just mumbles and points at the kid not playing. Another thing I observed when playing with Eyan is that he likes where he is playing to be organized.
Before he plays with cars, he lines them up, bumper to bumper, and then he one by one plays with them. If I try to choose a car, I get a slap on the hand and a stern NO. Last year, all he wanted to do was play by himself, but this year I have been placing all his toys in the center among the kids, hoping that through being around them, he would set up a new routine on playing with the kids and the games they were playing. The first few months, he would try to move his stuff to his own space and play alone. After I stopped putting out the cars, he would sit by himself and watch the kids play red light green light. For weeks, he would just sit there and watch them play.
However, in his mind, the game started to become a routine and one Wednesday Night he joined in the game. He stopped at red and went on green, just how he watched the other kids. When he held the sign he turned the sign to face red when he wanted the kids to stop and green when he wanted the kids to go. A few weeks later he became verbal. He would shout stop and laugh when he wanted the kids to stop and then shout Go and laugh as the kids ran to try to get to where he was. A month ago he started joining the kids at the snack table and include them when he played cars.
There are many ways to treat autism, but a person has to understand what autism is, find ways to help, a child or an adult, who is facing autism, and through helping someone with autism, a person must be able to be flexible to change their teaching style. Understanding what autism is, is a great first step to help a child and adult. Knowing what is going on in the mind of someone who has autism helps the kid or adult to truly connect to you. According to research the best ways to help people with autism is through creating a safe environment, being intentional, being constant, and creating routines that benefit the child or adult.
Through my own experience I found that adapting everyone else to meet the kid with autisms need doesn’t work, but trying to constantly engage the kid with autism to be comfortable with being part of the group of kids and making a routine out of it, helps the kids, especially Eyan, to not only learn how to work with others, but also to feel safe. Autism is everywhere and so many kids and adults are being neglected because people don’t know how to help them. Be intentional, constant, and a safe place for those who don’t have that.
In conclusion, Faith Jegede Cole said, “Normality overlooks the beauty that differences gives us, and the fact that we are different doesn’t mean that one of us is wrong. It just means that there is a different kind of right.” Do not try and change a kid or adult who has autism, but do not leave them out, to be alone. Include, did deep, be intentional, be constant, be safe, and learn how to help them and then do it.
