There is a video circulating right now of a teen age, severely autistic girl, that had an amazing breakthrough ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNZVV4Ciccg&feature=share ). The media presents the story almost as if it is some magical thing that just happened one day, and a completely non-verbal girl suddenly jumped on a computer and was able to communicate. However when you really pay attention to this video, what you find is a truly amazing story of an amazing breakthrough that was clearly the result of years and years of hard work by many people. Her parents showed incredible dedication to her, despite experts telling them that their daughter was severely autistic, and probably mentally retarded as well. They continued to provide her with therapy that was giving her the tools to one day make a breakthrough, and type two words on the computer. From those two words the parents and therapist then continued to work with her, focusing their efforts towards that breakthrough, enabling her to find her voice. This story to me is a love story first and foremost. A love story in which parents never gave up on a child that continues to be difficult, a child that never gave up on herself, and a team of therapists that continued to work with someone that in their minds was beyond help. What this story is NOT to me, is magic. It is an insult to the girl, her parents, and all those who put so many difficult hours of work into this case, and continue to. One of the common things we find in reading blogs, articles and news stories of other success stories, is that when given the tools, a lot of autistic children find their own way of using those tools to teach themselves. It’s like giving someone a palette, paint, brushes, an easel, and countless hours on painting theory. Showing them standard exercises in painting, showing them works of other painters, but after countless days of complete apathy, when they finally start experimenting with these elements, knowing to let them discover them on their own. Let them start by chewing on the cap of the paint, then maybe tasting the paint, rubbing their fingers in it. Instead of immediately trying to correct them, and teach them how to hold a brush, you encourage them to further discover these tools and elements of painting. Maybe they don’t pick up a brush for a long time, maybe they never pick up a brush, it doesn’t matter because they start painting on their own. At first they are simple things, but with encouragement and a knowledge of the theory and all the tools at their disposal, they begin to build on their ideas, expand them, and use these things in ways others have never thought of.
Holden has begun to make some amazing breakthroughs in language. He is teaching himself to read and write, in his own way, but with the tools we have provided him with. Very early on, I began to really push academics with Holden. He showed an aptitude for academics in preschool, and so when he enter kindergarten I spoke to his teacher about putting effort into those academics. Other people felt that it was better to address his behaviors first. Their line of thought was that if Holden’s behaviors were under control, he would be able to focus better on his academics. However I was a special ed child growing up. I was mainstreamed, but pulled out of class to attend special ed classes. My deficit was primarily in English, math came very easy to me. As a result, they would pull me out of math, to go to special Ed for my English. I know they were trying to help me, by getting me caught up in reading and writing, but they did me a great injustice, by talking away the one subject that I could just do. Math just came to me, when it came to math, I could just dance. I didn’t want to do that to Holden, take away a strength, to work on a weakness. Also, it is our goal to include Holden into more and more mainstream classes. Right now he is mainstreamed about 10% of his class time, but we would love to see that number at 85% to 95% someday. In order to do that he would have to have his academics at par, as well as his behaviours. Holden’s teacher listened to me, and began to equally push the academics, and Holden responded by giving us more focus and more time on a single task then he ever had before. Encouraged, his teacher pushed on, and Holden slowly, but surely made progress.
What is interesting now, is that Holden is under going behavioural assessment, because he is going to begin in-home behavioural therapy. The person doing the assessment was blown away by Holden’s interest, and progress in reading and writing, and how much more focused, and engaged he is when doing those things, then he is doing anything else. She wants to incorporate those academic skills into his behavioral therapy. It is so ironic to me that the behaviours that have been said to get in the way of his ability to learn, are now going to be partially treated by using academics, or learning, as a tool to treat them.
Holden is making some amazing breakthroughs in reading and writing. I am including a video with this blog of Holden reading sentences that he wrote on his own. I was so happy I caught this on film, he had never done anything quite like it before. There is really no other term for what he is doing in this video, he is reading and writing. It is truly amazing to see, since he will rarely speak in a sentence unless prompted to, yet here he is reading several simple sentences that he wrote. It is not magic, that he sudden was able to make this breakthrough, it was countless hours of hard work, from a lot of people. It is a part of our love story, it is a work in progress, and it is fueled by such a love that only a parent can have for a child. I don’t know how this story ends, but I know that it is far from over.
Holden has begun to make some amazing breakthroughs in language. He is teaching himself to read and write, in his own way, but with the tools we have provided him with. Very early on, I began to really push academics with Holden. He showed an aptitude for academics in preschool, and so when he enter kindergarten I spoke to his teacher about putting effort into those academics. Other people felt that it was better to address his behaviors first. Their line of thought was that if Holden’s behaviors were under control, he would be able to focus better on his academics. However I was a special ed child growing up. I was mainstreamed, but pulled out of class to attend special ed classes. My deficit was primarily in English, math came very easy to me. As a result, they would pull me out of math, to go to special Ed for my English. I know they were trying to help me, by getting me caught up in reading and writing, but they did me a great injustice, by talking away the one subject that I could just do. Math just came to me, when it came to math, I could just dance. I didn’t want to do that to Holden, take away a strength, to work on a weakness. Also, it is our goal to include Holden into more and more mainstream classes. Right now he is mainstreamed about 10% of his class time, but we would love to see that number at 85% to 95% someday. In order to do that he would have to have his academics at par, as well as his behaviours. Holden’s teacher listened to me, and began to equally push the academics, and Holden responded by giving us more focus and more time on a single task then he ever had before. Encouraged, his teacher pushed on, and Holden slowly, but surely made progress.
What is interesting now, is that Holden is under going behavioural assessment, because he is going to begin in-home behavioural therapy. The person doing the assessment was blown away by Holden’s interest, and progress in reading and writing, and how much more focused, and engaged he is when doing those things, then he is doing anything else. She wants to incorporate those academic skills into his behavioral therapy. It is so ironic to me that the behaviours that have been said to get in the way of his ability to learn, are now going to be partially treated by using academics, or learning, as a tool to treat them.
Holden is making some amazing breakthroughs in reading and writing. I am including a video with this blog of Holden reading sentences that he wrote on his own. I was so happy I caught this on film, he had never done anything quite like it before. There is really no other term for what he is doing in this video, he is reading and writing. It is truly amazing to see, since he will rarely speak in a sentence unless prompted to, yet here he is reading several simple sentences that he wrote. It is not magic, that he sudden was able to make this breakthrough, it was countless hours of hard work, from a lot of people. It is a part of our love story, it is a work in progress, and it is fueled by such a love that only a parent can have for a child. I don’t know how this story ends, but I know that it is far from over.
If this video does not play, you can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEopIPQVCSM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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