On 2 April, the 15th World Autism Care Day, disabled persons' federations and rehabilitation institutions across the country carried out various forms of publicity activities.
In these many activities, in addition to various forums and lectures, the most common ones are such as "Autism Students Calligraphy and Painting Works Tour exhibition", "Xingbao excellent painting charity sale", "public welfare works exhibition", etc., the main purpose is to collect excellent works created by children with special needs such as autism, either donation or charity sale, or better is to be issued as a digital art collection in limited quantities, and will all be donated to a certain foundation for the healing and support of special children.
It is not impossible to understand autism through paintings, to understand autism, but as a real understanding of the autistic group, just posting paintings can really let them get more attention and help? What else can we do? What exactly do autistic families need?
The large-scale science about autism is the most intensive on April 2, World Autism Day, every year, and then it ends in a cold and clear way. After April 2, it still returned to its former "loneliness", going back and forth between the institution and the family, no one cared, and even loneliness.
What's more frightening is that blindly promoting the paintings of autistic children, as well as music, memory and other talents, it is easy for the public to subconsciously feel that autistic children are actually very smart, you see, they are very good at painting, you can also rely on painting sales to make money, who said that they do not have the ability to make money?
This microscopic world seen through the filter can easily bring an optimistic prejudice to autistic children - they are either not talkative, or they are painting geniuses - once this prejudice is popular and magnified by the public, then the "mediocrity" and even "helplessness" of the relatively healthy people who have worked hard for professional institutions and people to popularize for many years will disappear in this optimistic impact, thus treating the autistic group as a group more powerful than the able-bodied people.
Even Stephen Wiltshire, a black Painter of Autism in England once hailed as a genius, blew up the Internet in 2009 when he completed a 5.5-meter-long "New York Silhouette" in just about a week.
In 2001, he also appeared on BBC's "Fragments of Genius", where he flew over London in a helicopter and then painted a meticulously detailed aerial illustration in 3 hours. The illustration depicts views within a 4-square-mile radius, including 12 historic sites and 200 other buildings. In 2006 Stephen Wilt was awarded the Royal Order of The Honour. He has since opened his own permanent gallery in London, where all his works will be permanently exhibited.
Just like the black painter and the brother Raymond in the movie "Rain Man", they all belong to the scholar syndrome. Scholar syndrome refers to people who have cognitive impairments, but in a certain aspect, such as for some kind of art or scholarship, but have superhuman abilities.
10% of people with autism are academic syndrome (hence the name autism scholar, AS), most of their IQ is below 70, but in some special tests it is far better than ordinary people, so it is commonly known as idiot genius.
But they are still a group of autism spectrum disorders, unable to socialize and unable to live independently.
Because the physical disabilities, deaf-mute blind and other disabled people who can be distinguished by the naked eye are defined as autism with mental disorders, they cannot see any difference from the able-bodied people from the limbs and appearance, and even will avoid the symptoms of looking at people, mistakenly thinking that they are "introverted" and "shy", thus misunderstanding the typical autistic group.
This misunderstanding reinforces the prejudice and arrogance of the public about autism.
Once this prejudice and arrogance are solidified, it is still the autistic community and the family itself that will ultimately be harmed.
From 1982, when Professor Tao Guotai of Nanjing Brain Hospital diagnosed and found the first case of autism in China, now the understanding and research of autism has been less than 40 years, and in the past attitude towards the autism group, because of "different", the body and mind of autistic children are bound to the disease, and they are "isolated" outside the social circle. Many children with autism have a monotonous childhood between home and rehabilitation school, and it seems that the beauty and excitement of the world cannot be linked to them.
It is precisely because of this inability to link that autistic groups and families suffer from the mental torture and huge economic pressure of illness, and are isolated from nature layer by layer.
Because of "misunderstanding and prejudice", many parents of autistic children not only bear a heavy financial burden and physical and mental pressure, but also have to bear a variety of different visions. For ordinary families, seemingly simple and happy parent-child outings on weekends are often worried about families with autistic children. Many ordinary social interactions and social activities are difficult for families of children with autism.
They are often "forgotten" and "blocked" by society.
In the long run, the path to social integration for children with autism will become more and more difficult.
Every year on World Autism Day, one can't help but ask: What exactly do autistic groups and families need?
understand? money? Love? Inclusive education?
These are all needed, but this alone is not enough!
Prejudice is a big mountain in people's minds, and prejudice often comes from the limitations of vision and cognition.
Please ask the media, don't sell autism paintings, autistic groups need to accept more than pay attention, especially the wrong attention.
The whole society pays attention to the rehabilitation and development of autistic children and guards the growth of autistic children.
World Autism Day, 2 April 2022, how can I better recognize autism?
As a parent, you need to:
Scientific understanding of autism, knowing oneself and knowing the other can win every battle;
Firm belief that children will make progress after receiving rehabilitation;
Families participate in rehabilitation training and implement integrated intervention training for medical schools and families.
Understand the learning styles and styles of children with autism, early, systematic, high-intensity, individualized and long-term training, so that they can comply with social norms of behavior, support themselves, do their best, and contribute to society.
As a special education teacher, you need to:
Use visual strategies to help children with autism understand information.
Use multiple senses to assist children with autism in learning and avoid excessive verbal instructions. Help children with autism develop appropriate and effective communication skills.
Provide a conducive learning environment and reduce the impact of noise, glare, and excessive room temperature.
As a member of the public, you need to:
Scientific understanding of autism and understanding of the difficulties and challenges faced by parents of children with autism;
Accept and respect children with autism without discrimination or teasing;
Inclusion and understanding provide more opportunities for children with autism to integrate into society.
Yi Yuntian, not a famous writer. Xu Hengfu, born in Lanzhou, now lives in Zhengzhou. Original and in-depth entertainment film and television reviews, interpretation of current affairs hot spots, family education analysis. Do not go with the flow, there is an attitude, more temperature. Sina Weibo: Yi Yuntian; WeChat public account: Yi Yuntian said (ID: yiyuntianshuo).