Fujian: Escort for autistic children

On the 9th, Quanzhou Yuanxing gathered in the coffee house, and the waiters who ended the Spring Festival holiday were busy mopping the floor, wiping the windows, and tidying up, and everyone worked together to make the coffee house look new and open to welcome guests. These waiters are all autistic, and a mother opened this shop in order to let her children exercise independent survival skills and integrate into society as much as possible.

In the face of autistic children, mothers used to feel desperate. In order to help their children find a way out, they work hard to hold up a piece of the sky for their children. In order for their children to be independent, they have persevered for more than 10 years. They are both mothers of autistic children and escorts of children with autism.

Establishment of institutions to provide professional rehabilitation training

Xiao Wei (pseudonym), 22, is tall and uses a hair dryer to blow her mother Chen Meirong's hair with concentration and gentle movements. Recently, the reporter saw in quanzhou Xingfu Public Welfare Bookstore that the picture of Chen Meirong's mother and son getting along warmly was touching.

Serena and her twin brother were born in 1999, and the brothers still can't speak when they are 4 years old. In 2003, the brothers were diagnosed with "autism." Faced with reality, Chen Meirong began to re-plan her life. 0 to 6 years old is the golden age of rehabilitation for autistic people. At that time, the brothers were 4 years old, and the rehabilitation training could not be delayed. At that time, there was no professional rehabilitation training institution in Quanzhou, so Chen Meirong specially hired a teacher who had worked in an autism training institution to conduct rehabilitation training for children at home.

In 2004, in order to let children receive more professional rehabilitation training, Chen Meirong founded quanzhou Big Dipper Autism Rehabilitation Center, which is the first professional training institution for autism in Quanzhou. "In addition to enabling my children to receive professional rehabilitation training, I also hope to let more people understand autism and let more autistic children get professional intervention as soon as possible." Chen Meirong said that in order to ensure the professionalism of rehabilitation training, the center pays attention to establishing cooperation and exchange relations with colleges and universities and institutions that study autism, and regularly sends teachers to Beijing, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States, Japan and other places to study every year.

Drying clothes, wiping down bookcases, tidying up desks, caring for flowers and plants... Nowadays, the Serena brothers can take care of their own lives. The Beidou Star Autism Rehabilitation Center trains more than 200 grassroots rehabilitation personnel and parents of people with autism and other disabilities every year, invites autism education and research experts to guide and hold 3 to 4 public lectures every year, and accepts trainees and interns all year round, and trains more than 1,000 volunteers.

Helping children catch up with their peers is the wish of many parents of autistic people. There are also many autism service institutions in Quanzhou that were founded by parents of autistic people. In 2004, several parents of autistic patients spontaneously organized the establishment of Quanzhou Sun Rain Children's Training School. The school has a "community rehabilitation training system", which is divided into scenario simulation classrooms, virtual interactive classrooms and cathartic classrooms. The scenario simulation classroom is like a community, setting up a variety of common scenarios in life, and autistic people can rehabilitate in the game. In the cathartic classroom, parents of autistic patients who accompany the reading can receive psychological counseling and build confidence in life. This system was donated by the caring unit and was the first one in Quanzhou to be built and put into use in the rehabilitation institutions for autistic children. Initiator Lin Liping said that the school mainly provides early intervention for special children aged 2 to 16 with autism, ADHD, language development disorders, intellectual disabilities and other special children, and has received nearly 2600 autistic patients since its establishment.

Link Resources Illuminate the Way Forward for More Kids

In recent years, with the continuous increase of social attention to autistic groups, the role of autism service agencies in linking resources has become increasingly prominent.

Take the Beidou Star Autism Rehabilitation Center as an example: from 2016 to 2018, the "BDStar Parent Gas Station" project was supported by the One Foundation Ocean Paradise Program Parent Gas Station Project; on the 2020 National Day of Assisting the Disabled, the Center and the Fujian Provincial Disabled Charity Association and quanzhou Red Cross Volunteer Service united as public welfare partners; in the past 5 years, the Center has cooperated with the Provincial and Municipal Disabled Persons' Federation to hold nearly 30 charity public welfare activities with caring units and teams from all walks of life...

Institutions also play an important role in educating people with autism. Sun Rain Children's Training School cooperated with Licheng District Xincun Primary School to carry out the integrated education co-construction project; beidou star autism rehabilitation center and Quanzhou Experimental Primary School Luojiang Campus carried out the pilot project of "Integrating Love and Children's Walk" special children's integration education.

In recent years, the relevant departments of Quanzhou City have also continuously strengthened the construction of a social support system for autistic patients. In 2019, Quanzhou City issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Work of Children and Adolescents with Disabilities such as Autism in Quanzhou City to Attend Classes in Ordinary Schools", established 22 pilot schools (parks) for integrated education in ordinary schools (parks) in the city, and promoted governments at all levels and relevant departments to give priority to policies, funds and personnel allocation. Quanzhou City supports the development of autism rehabilitation institutions, implements a filing system management for autism rehabilitation institutions, and autistic patients can apply for assistance in the filing institutions. Quanzhou has set up a special education fund for the training of teachers and parents with autism, as well as to support the employment and entrepreneurship of students with disabilities. In the past two years, the relevant departments of Quanzhou City have invited Taiwan autism experts to carry out autism teacher and parent training, and improved the theoretical knowledge and professional skills of teachers and parents in rehabilitation training. At present, there are more than 30 autism rehabilitation institutions on the record in the city, with thousands of practitioners, providing rehabilitation training and guidance services for thousands of autistic patients and parents every year.

Integration into society also requires a sound support system

"Previously, everyone paid more attention to rehabilitation training in children with autism. Now, when children with autism come out of rehabilitation institutions as teenagers, where do they go? This requires considering how to provide reasonable convenience for autistic people to help them integrate into society and realize the value of life. Lin Liping said.

This is also the question that Chen Meirong has been thinking about. In 2015, the BDStar Autism Rehabilitation Center began to create the "Star Dream Farm", an auxiliary employment base for elderly autistic patients; in 2016, it created the "Star Dream Farm Star Home"; in 2017, it created the "Star Children's Handicraft Workshop" and the "Star Blessing Public Welfare Bookstore".

"The Xingfu Charity Bookstore project, which was claimed by the Amity Foundation and launched on the Tencent Charity Donation Platform, was officially opened in April 2017 and is the first community-assisted employment place in Fujian Province dedicated to elderly autistic people over the age of 18." Chen Meirong said that Xingfu Public Welfare Bookstore not only provides opportunities for elderly autistic patients and ordinary people to read together, but more importantly, provides auxiliary jobs for autistic patients.

In September 2019, Chen Meirong raised 50,000 yuan to open the "Yuanxingju Coffee House". This is an institution specializing in the production and operation of coffee, milk tea, handicraft art counseling and operation for autistic patients, and is also the first professional auxiliary employment base for autistic patients in Quanzhou, planning to provide auxiliary employment, vocational skills training, family services, etc. for 15 autistic patients every year.

At present, there are 18 autistic children involved in the operation of the coffee house, each with a monthly salary of 600 yuan. Although it is a beneficial attempt, the current operation of the coffee house is mainly supported by donations, and this model still faces many problems to promote. Chen Meirong said.

In Lin Liping's view, to integrate autistic people into society, it is necessary to establish a comprehensive support system from all aspects of community, education, and employment. Among them, in terms of employment, whether older autistic people can integrate into society is related to whether they can be independent. However, at present, there are very few accompanying employment and supportive employment for autistic patients, and some autistic patients who leave professional institutions are eventually "circled" at home, resulting in the degradation of ability, which cannot be ignored. (Reporter Huang Qiongfen)

Source: Fujian Daily