The biggest challenge in teaching a child with autism is that they have a tendency to forget easily and so to be able for them to master something you have to teach the same things to them repeatedly until it becomes a habit.

When I enrolled my daughter for her special class she barely can sit for long minutes and barely can identify parts of her body. She also has difficulty identifying colors and shapes and her matching ability is more often hits or miss.

It really takes hard work and dedication to get her out of her shell. Even traveling with her can be a difficult because she would show her peculiar behaviours or throw a tantrum when in an unfamiliar place or in a place with lots of people.

I have to endure the rude stares and comments whenever she is on a hissy fit each time we are out to practice her behavior in public and her waiting time.

Aside from constant practice there are medicines, vitamins and foods that can help enhance her memory and behavior and Nutroplex is one of the vitamins recommended for her and also her daily forever maintenance medicine Tegretol to minimize her epileptic seizures.

After more than two years of attending her special school, my daughter is now a master in her class. Her strongest point now is matching objects and compared to other kids with her case it didn’t take her teacher long to make her master the parts of her body. In fact, if her progress continuous she will be included in a group of kids like her who are taught responsibilities around the house (applied daily living activities) like cooking, cleaning the house, buying and selling, counting money and change and the like.

Stay gorgeous everyone!

UPDATE: Gomey is home!  Hooray!  The more than 800,000 post helped. He was sent back home.  Details here.

One of my biggest pet peeve are people who are so full of themselves to think they are better than others and know more than anyone else.

I was doing my regular blog hopping when I chanced upon this story about Gomey, a 19 year old person with autism (PWA).  He is from Quebec, Montreal, Canada but he was forcibly taken away from his family and home and was brought to a French speaking psychiatric hospital because of a social worker who doesn’t understand a thing about autism and assessed Gomey has suicidal tendencies and can do harm to others if not himself which was far from the truth.

This social worker just started 4 months from her work.   She’s a social worker who took over the yearly ritual of a short assessment of the family to reach an agreement about some hours of respite care.  With the brief moment this social worker spoke with Gomey she decided she can break up a happy family.

Even psychiatrists and psychologists take more time to access suicidal risk.  People who know Gomey question themselves how someone can decide he’s a risk for his environment.  In all those 19 years he has never harmed someone, never attacked someone.

Gomey was recognised for his hand flapping.  Many autistic children display some sort of repetitive movement. Especially in times of stress or overstimulation.  Gomey learned to listen better to himself and as he grew up he learned to recognise difficult situations and often he’s able to deal with them, sometimes with and sometimes without help.

This incident, according to the post, happened February 1, 2010.   Gomey was taken away from his home with 2 police officers and several social worker, which I imagine can be very stressful and scary situation for Gomey and his family.

It’s already February 21, 2010 and Gomey’s family is hoping that he will be released and returned home soon.

Gomey’s family and people who care about PWA’s are spreading this news all over the net and any possible way they can because they want answers to why Gomey was taken away from them and bring him back home.

• We need psychologists and psychiatrists who dare to speak out on behalf of this family.
• Social workers who want to give a second opinion about the family,  and professionals who want to work directly with the family to support them and solve the matter.
• Anyone who can contribute from his or her profession is welcome.
• There are so many questions that need to be answered,
• files to be requested.
• Why was Gomey taken from his home?
• Why did they come with so many people?
• He is 19, so the law allows him to make a well informed choice. Why where his rights violated? Etc etc.

You can read more about this story by clicking the button below:

Although more people are aware about the word Autism most don’t really understand what it is like unless you live with one.  I am glad I live here in the Philippines where most people are very tolerant and are family orientated.  Although they don’t understand why sometimes my child behaves inappropriately they understand she is a child.

But in other parts of the world Gomey is just one of the many autistic young people who are either thrown behind bars or put in institutions, just because people don’t understand the true nature of autism.

Gomey’s family are an example of many families who have to deal with professionals who make daily life a hell, because “they know better”.   Many parents fear interference of Childcare and other organisations because they take care of their children in a way which is not like society takes care of normal children.

“Autism is a neurological disorder which can’t be cured, but can improve when the environment is able to adjust to the needs of the person.   Because of a lack of differential diagnoses many children are considered autistic and won’t receive proper support and therapy, whereas they show autistiform behaviour which can be influenced with proper treatment of the underlying physical condition.”