A
couple of years ago, a six year old boy was brought to the special needs education
centre where I worked at the time, for assessment. His teacher had told his
parents that he had autism because he was stubborn. Our centre was recommended
to them, so we had to do the assessment. And then lecture them on what autism
really is.
We
have talked previously on what autism is, let’s talk now on what autism is not.
Autism
is NOT imbecility: Some people consider children with autism as imbeciles. Originally,
the word imbecile is used to describe anybody with an IQ below 50 and above 20.
These set of individuals are considered as ineducable. Children with autism are
educable and they are not stupid, so cannot be referred to as imbeciles.
Autism
is NOT a disorder for children of rich people: Some people consider autism as a
social disorder. Many times when I meet people and I mention that I work with
children living with autism, they say that “there’s money in your work na.
Their parents are rich”. Some even argue with me when I try to educate them. Be
INFORMED! Autism has absolutely nothing to do with the social status of the
parents. Children with autism are found in rich, middle class and poor
families. They are born in urban areas and rural areas. Autism is no respecter
of social status.
Autism
is NOT as a result of bad parenting: It’s always painful to see or hear people
talk negatively about parents of children with special needs. Some parents face
stigmatization because they have a child with special needs. Please people,
they didn’t ask for a special needs child. They need your love and support.
Autism is not a result of bad or poor parenting. The parents have no blame in
the condition of their child. They have had to learn to accept and love their
child and provide the support the child needs. We should support them too.
Autism
is NOT a curse: One reason some Nigerian parents don’t find help early for
their child with autism is that they spend years taking the child from one
prayer house to another, because they think it is a curse or something of that
nature. Please, autism is not a curse. Nobody is “doing” the child. It is a
disorder and that is all that there is to it. I am not against praying for the
child, but you need to ensure that the child gets the right help. Two
scriptures from the Bible ring in my heart now. One is that faith without works
is dead, so parents should put their faith to work and get help for the child.
The other scripture says that we do not receive answers to our prayers because
we pray outside God’s will. Praying against a curse where there’s no curse
seems like praying amiss to me.
Autism
is NOT the consequence for witchcraft: Some people also accuse parents of
children with autism of witchcraft or occultism. Why na? Must we spiritualise
everything? Like I said earlier, it is not the parents fault. Also nobody is
doing the child.
Autism
is NOT a name for naughty children: Like the case in my introduction, some
teachers or people think that autism is a name or title for children that are
naughty. There’s no correlation, abeg. It is not a name or title for naughty
children. We have talked about what autism is in a previous article. You will
do well to check it out.
Autism
does NOT define the child: Many times we limit children with autism or any
other form of special needs because we define them by the disorder. Yes we need
to be patient with them, love them and let them move at their pace, but that
does not mean we should limit them because of the disorder. These children are
seeking to express themselves, we should let them. We should seek for the help
that they need so as to be independent. We should not raise them to be
helpless, because we are trying to be understanding. Also I have to say that we
do not refer to a person with autism as “AUTISTIC”. Rather the appropriate
thing to say is “a person (living) with autism” or “a person on the autism spectrum”.
Autism
is NOT the end of the world: One major reason for autism awareness is to give
hope to parents of children on the autism spectrum. The fact that a child has
autism does not stop the child’s future. That is why there are professionals
that provide therapy for children with autism. They are there to care for the
child and help the child attain maximum independence.
Much love from me to
you in this valentine season...muah
