Friday, October 31, 2014

Have you heard about Temple Grandin before?

I promised to put Temple Grandin story up before the end of October, so this is it...

Sometime in 2010, I stumbled on a movie called “Temple Grandin”. The movie was a biography of a woman, Temple Grandin, living with autism. It was inspiring for me, mostly because as a support worker in a centre for children with autism, it stirred up hope in my heart for the children I worked with at the time. It was proof that there was hope for recovery, as the story was about a living person who in spite of the limitations of autism was a doctor of animal science, a consultant to the livestock industry on animal behaviour, an engineer, and an autism advocate.

Fast forward to 2012, a parent asked me if there was anybody on d spectrum that she could read about. One name came readily to my mind; Temple Grandin. So here I am sharing the story of this amazing woman living with autism, and has been able to make the most of life in spite of the disorder and its effects.


                                                      Image gotten from wikipedia.com

Temple Grandin was born on August 29, 1947 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Eustacia Cutler and Richard Grandin. When she was two years old, she was diagnosed with autism.  Her mother placed her in a structured nursery school. Temple Grandin suffered delayed speech, which is a typical sign of autism. After a doctor suggested speech therapy to her mother, she hired a nanny who spent hours playing turn-taking games with Temple and her sister. She eventually started talking at age four.

Temple went on to primary school, where she says she had supportive mentors. She had a rough experience in middle school and high school because of her poor communication skills. She recounts that it hurt her then when other students ridiculed her. They referred to her as “tape recorder” because she used to repeat herself constantly.

Temple Grandin went on Franklin Pierce College, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 1970. She later obtained a master’s degree in animal science from Arizona State University in 1975. In 1989, she earned a PhD in animal science from the University of Illinois.

Although Grandin was initially diagnosed with Brain damage, her mother decided to find the help she needed. Now she is considered one of the most successful people with autism. She is an inventor, as she invented the “hug box” which is a device that can be used to calm a hypersensitive person, usually a person with autism, by providing deep pressure to the person. She has authored many books including Thinking in pictures: My life with autism, The Autistic Brain: Thinking across the spectrum, The Way I see it: A Personal look at Autism & Asperger's, Emergence: Labeled Autistic, Sensory Challenges and Answers, Different not less: Inspiring Stories of Achievement and successful employment from adults with Autism, Asperger's, and ADHD, and so many other books on autism. She has also written books as an animal scientist, such as; Animals make us human, Genetics and Behaviour of Domestic Animals, Improving animal welfare: A Practical Approach, Livestock Handling and Transport, and many more books. She has also authored many articles along these lines.

According to her biography on her website, Temple Grandin “is a designer of livestock handling facilities and a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. Facilities she has designed are located in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. In North America, almost half of the cattle are handled in a center track restrainer system that she designed for meat plants. Curved chute and race systems she has designed for cattle are used worldwide and her writings on the flight zone and other principles of grazing animal behavior have helped many people to reduce stress on their animals during handling. She has also developed an objective scoring system for assessing handling of cattle and pigs at meat plants. This scoring system is being used by many large corporations to improve animal welfare. Other areas of research are: cattle temperament, environmental enrichment for pigs, reducing dark cutters and bruises, bull fertility, training procedures, and effective stunning methods for cattle and pigs at meat plants.”

Temple is an autism advocate, and she is very much involved in autism awareness. She talks about her own experiences and challenges as a person living with autism. She talks about her anxieties, sensory processing difficulties, challenges with social interaction, and most importantly how pictures and not words are her primary language. These are similar to the experiences our own children with autism (as parents and care-givers) face.

   Image gotten from www.biography.com

For me, Temple Grandin’s story gives me hope and inspires me. As long as I don’t give up on any child, and as long as I give my best to each child; the limitations that autism present can be made to work to the child’s advantage. I hope Temple’s story does the same for you.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Letter to Bubu

There are just a few people that I have met that "literally" blew my mind. From the first time I saw this woman on WWTBAM (Who wants to be a millionaire) on TV and I thought "Wow,this woman is pretty"; then I met her at GTB autism seminar in 2011 till I finally heard her story in June 2011 and up till now, my respect and love for her just keeps growing.
October 19, 2012; she wrote a letter to her son on his birthday. It blessed my life and I know it can bless yours too. So I got permission to share it then. And I want to share it again with you.

"An open letter to Bubu from his mummy on his 6th birthday.

Hey Baby, it's your birthday today and am almost moved to tears taking a trip down the path you've come. For a kid so young, you have lived a hundred years beyond your age and all with a smile on your face, eyes twinkling and a rich laugh to go.

We knew you were definitely going to be a special child before you were born, you see complications from multiple surgeries had damaged mummy's reproductive organs and the doctors had said you couldn't be birth (not without assisted reproductive techniques anyway but the Great Man above had other plans. )
The name "CHUKWUEBUKA" was chosen years before the miracle that was you came along, before even daddy came along (- I will tell you a lot more about the man your father is when you are a bit older). I was convinced despite what the doctors where saying, that God was gonna show what a Great God He is. The world was in need of Joshua's for this generation and I believed that the gift that would be you would be one of them.

Fast forward a couple years, soooooooooo much more than I can recount here now has gone on, mum and dad are together now (a crazy enterprise for dad really) and are trying to workout a path to you through IVF when you burst through to the shock and amazement of everyone, the doctors at the reproduction center, us , everyone but God who had decided you were coming and not through IVF. Initially we were skeptical, it couldn't be.... how was it even possible???? But alas weeks after we could confirm you were there alright, smack in the uterus, how you got there, till today we would never know and honestly don't care. You were there and that was all that mattered.

You made landfall, six years ago to the sound of grandma and her sisters singing at the top of their voices in the hospital to the amusement and I dare say the irritation of the nurses and other patients. But there you were - tiny, breathing, crying, brand spanking new and I would never forget the rush of emotions. Daddy was right there sweating profusely, looking like he was the one that they had cut you out of, lol. What a precious gift???? What a unique child, conceived on Avenue Tedesco, born on Hospital Drive and bred on Ademola Close, who can beat such an exotic start???

Your first years were better than we could have expected as new parents. We poured through the books trying to keep up, checking up on monthly milestones and charting your progress and you exceeded them each month, you were used as the yardstick to measure the other kids around. You held ur head, crawled walked and started talking. I remember I was soooo pained your first words were dada and I started drilling you everyday to see if you would switch to mama - you didn't but on Christmas day while in church 2 months after your 1st birthday and months after you started saying everything but that, you finally called me mama, very loudly to the amusement of all.

Even as a kid you showed a great love for music and would run around the house singing rhymes. But a dark cloud appeared to be looming, it started with repeat bouts of upper respiratory tract infections, we were told it was expected, you sucked your fingers so as a toddler you were exposed to lots of stuff that could cause infections via the sucking, hmmm, ok. We took antibiotics for that, lots of it. Then it was chronic constipation, dietary change wasn't cutting it, they put you on daily laxatives, it didn't cut it still, we got worried, then the straw that broke the camels back, you received a seemingly harmless shot and got ill, we went on admission, came out and you started stuttering, then struggling to speak, then you lost all speech totally. Like it wasn't enough already, the wardrobe door unhinged and landed on your head in a freak accident that still defies explanation till date. Immune dysfunction, mecury toxicity, head trauma, hypothyroidism, mitochondrial dysfunction, you name it, we have known it. It was the commencement of a journey that eventually led us down the rabbits hole to regressive autism.

The day you finally got officially diagnosed, almost 8 months later following a lot of drama, you and I shared a moment I want to share with you. At this point, I had started working with you personally, not knowing much, all we knew was we needed to keep your brain stimulated while awaiting diagnosis and we did. That night I lay in bed with you and had a conversation that went like this " Bubu, am sure you heard what the doc said this afternoon, but what the doc didn't know is that you are not just an ordinary boy. You already made it into this world when it had been said you wouldn't, you won that fight. You've got another battle on your hand now that you need to gear up for. I promise to fight with you and for you with everything I got but to do that you have to officially appoint me your arbiter be4 God, so I can have the authority to speak on your behalf till your able to, if you agree to this, shake my hand and it will be the sign of our agreement".

To my greatest surprise, you got up from the bed, knelt over me, shed a tear from just your left eye, brought your hands out and shook my hand. If there was ever a time I would have broken down, it would have been then, but you still had more in you. You held my hand and said very audibly, in a voice I hadn't heard in over 8months, the word - APPLE. I was gobsmacked, this was one of the words we had been working with you on and wasn't even sure you were paying attention to it and you had just said it, very clearly. That for me was all I needed. It was for me, the confirmation that we were yet again going to win another battle.

We knew it wasn't gonna be easy, but we knew the victory was already ours and pledged to do all we can to make sure we got you all you needed and then let God do His bit. Fast forward again to date and what an adventure it has been. I have never known anyone work as hard as you have in life, God's grace has just been upon you causing you to make ridiculous progress despite continuos challenges. Today on your 6th birthday, we are so close to the finish line, it is so tantalizingly close, we can see it.

We are buckling down for that final push, you are ready for it and with God on our side we've made it already. I write you today publicly cause I want you to be able to come back to see the day and time I knew for sure we were home free. What ever lies ahead, WE ARE HOME FREE. We love you beyond measure son and celebrate you with the world today. We are so proud of you, our little musician, it,maths/puzzle guru. The world is yours to conquer and conquer it you shall. May God continue to bless and increase you in all good things today and always.


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HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUBU!!! (Oct 19)"

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

GET UP and HURRY

“After the wise men had gone, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up! Hurry and take the child and his mother to Egypt! Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is looking for the child and wants to kill him."  That night, Joseph got up and took his wife and the child to Egypt” (Matthew 2:13-14)

Hello everyone. I've missed you, and I hope you've missed me too.  Anyway, I’m back and today I’ll be writing based on a scripture from the Bible.

Recently I was at a training in Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s called “Hands on Autism”, organized by Autism South Africa (a:sa) and Johannesburg Hospital School (a school for children with autism). We had the opportunity to see different children on the spectrum, with ages ranging from 3 to 21.  Of course the children were in different classes based on their ages and level of support needed. We had the opportunity to observe the “morning ring” (circle time) of a class that had children of ages 5 and 6. That experience inspired this article.

Back to the Bible story; Jesus had been born and I’m sure his parents were happy. In fact, one night some wise men came visiting and brought wonderful gifts for their new born baby. How glad the parents would have been. But that night, Joseph was told that someone wanted to kill his son (his precious child). Does that not sound like when a parent hears that his/her child has autism, or any form of special needs? What could he or the child have done to deserve this judgement of death? What could a parent or the child have done to deserve autism?


Well, Joseph didn't sit there crying and wishing away the judgement. He had to do something. He got up and hurriedly took the child to a safe place. That seems exactly like the story of the parents of the children we saw in Giraffe class in JHS. These kids were pretty independent. It was amazing watching them communicate using words and sign language. They showed good turn-taking skills, as each child had to wait for his/her turn. The truth is that at their age, they still had some challenges caused by the autism, but they had really come a long way from how they were when they resumed at the school for the first time. This experience taught me that EARLY INTERVENTION CAN NEVER BE OVER-EMPHASISED.

So Dear Parent, I know it might be hard to take in the news of your child’s autism. In fact, you think I can’t imagine how you feel right now (Maybe I can’t). But can you GET UP and HURRY? You don’t have to be in Lagos or Abuja to get help for your child. Well, if it means going there or anywhere that has a center to find out how to start helping your child, then by all means, GO. But don’t sit there and wish away autism. Do something.

Sometime this month, I shall share with you the story of Temple Grandin who was born with autism AND is now a doctor of Animal Science in USA. On October 19, I shall share “letter to Bubu” which was written by a mother to her child on the autism spectrum. These stories tell us about mothers who decided to GET UP and HURRY, regardless of the challenges they faced or how they felt. So please watch out for these stories.


You can like my FB page, Autism Gist with Adelola or follow me on twitter, @adelolaonautism. I shall be sharing pictures of my Jo’burg experience and tips that you might find useful... Muah