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Showing posts from December, 2014

Literal thinkers

                                             What is about literal thinking and autism?                     Ramam’s friends had come over in the October holidays. He was very excited. And his expression manifested itself in few joyous shouts and screams from him. I then asked him to show his friends a tray full of glasses filled with juice. I got back to doing my work, when one of the mother’s remarked. “He is doing what Viji asked him to do”. He was literally holding the tray high and standing in their midst.  My intention was to ask him to serve the guest. So much for literal thinking and my failure to communicate to him.                          If one actually looks at the way they process information, shifting their attention to the speaker, trying to process the words, and decode the meaning  , adding to the burden are all the prepositions, conjunctions we use while speaking. Communication difficulties makes it harder for them to clarify, and again as language us

A fresh start

This blog has always been about Ramam. It has been about our interactions, joys and struggles with him. I now want to embark on a slightly different journey.  My blog has mostly been about personal anecdotes but this time around I would like to interlace it with my readings on the net, research a topic a little in-depth. I could have started in the New Year, but any day is a good day. If any of the readers would like to suggest a topic for discussion, I would like to take it up as the next topic.                                           Looking forward to your cooperation and encouragement.

Scripting

            Off late  Ramam has began saying  many a  things that happened  in the recent past, or something he has done in his school. Sometimes he talks about something a week old, and starts talking about it out of the blue. And since his articulation is not clear , we have a difficult time getting to understand. Yesterday he was all excited about the Christmas tree he had decorated in his school. It is in his recent memory, but  I am not too sure if the event happened on the day he related it to me.                                                                               He spoke of the decorations , he wanted to build a house with blocks and put a roof top .[This was the first time he build a house and wanting to put a door , windows and particularly a roof for the house]. Despite this positive trend , many a times he gets stuck with some words and phrases and repeats them over and over again. His favorites are colors and shapes. Pink triangle, blue circle.  Again we have

Inclusion and disbility

                               Recently , I attended the India inclusion summit, and was accompanied by two mothers  enroute to the venue, and whose kids were in the age group 7-8 years. The conversation soon veered to  discussing kids. One mother said "I was worried my son should wake up before I leave, and I had prepared him yesterday that I would be going . I was so relieved when he woke up before I left and told him I will be back in the evening." Immediately the other mother asked her  " Does he understand the concept of Evening?" And I thought how weird, how challenging is  the problem of autism. I was for the the most a mute spectator and most of the time I tuned out. As parents we know the level of preparation that goes into every event, or change in routine. They were discussing medicines, therapies....... And one mother said ,"My son wanted a different chapati, and kept shooing away the chappati I offered him. I knew fully well what he wanted but wai