Approaching children with autism – lighting up the hearts of "children of the stars" with understanding and love

Approaching children with autism

——Use understanding and love to light the heart lamp for the "children of the stars"

Pingliang Daily all-media reporter Yang Manyi text/photo

We have a group of children around us, they are small autistic people. These children have clear eyes but are reluctant to look at others; sensitive hearing, but they are deaf to the calls of their parents; their orthophoea organs are normally developed, but they are almost reluctant to say a word to people. These children are known as the "children of the stars" who have strayed into the world.

What kind of world do children with autism live in? What problems do families with autism face? April 2 is the "World Autism Awareness Day", the reporter recently approached the Pingliang Rehabilitation Center Hospital to deeply understand their situation and difficulties.

"Pull your child up with all your heart"

"Before the age of two, he behaved like a normal child, calling mom and dad and simply communicating with us." Nannan's mother said that when her son grew up a little longer, he found that he was not good at talking, his mood became bad, and he often hit his head and cried. "We began to worry, took the child to the provincial rehabilitation center hospital for examination, when the doctor evaluated the child and concluded that the child had autism."

The child is trained manually.

This diagnosis was unacceptable to The South-South parents for a while, but they could only accept this fact.

In October 2018, Nannan's mother took her child to Pingliang Rehabilitation Center Hospital to start rehabilitation. "In the beginning, he couldn't eat himself, didn't know he was going to go to the bathroom, couldn't understand what other people were saying, and even if you said it out loud, he wouldn't look at you." Nannan Mama said that for normal children, it may not be taught by adults, and from the expressions of the people around them, they can naturally understand what is pain, what is anxiety, what is happiness, what is like, what is sharing. And these, for the South and the South, do not understand.

"In the past few years, I have quit my job and have been taking my child to do rehabilitation, and I have cataracts in my eyes, but after the child has done rehabilitation training, I will always teach him some simple passwords in the ward." What makes Nannan's mother happy is that through the treatment of the doctors in the rehabilitation center hospital, Nannan has undergone obvious changes, and she has begun to understand simple passwords, know that she has to go to the bathroom when she goes to the toilet, and will also recite some simple children's songs.

"Have you ever thought about having another child?" The reporter asked cautiously.

"No, I don't want to give up on my son, I'm afraid of a small delay." Nannan's mother said that she always felt that she brought her son into this world and did not give him a complete life experience, which was a kind of guilt. "Since we have brought our child into the world, we have the responsibility to raise him well and pull him up wholeheartedly."

"I hope that the child can integrate into normal life"

In 2019, Chen Fang gave birth to the crystallization of love with her husband, named "Congcong". Looking at her swaddled son, she had fantasized countless times about what kind of big handsome guy this cute little thing would become in the future.

Autistic child Cong Cong (second from left) in a group class.

However, when the child grows to two years old, the children of the same age have gradually learned to speak, and Congcong can only occasionally shout out "daddy" and "mommy". The two of them couldn't sit still and rushed to take Congcong to the doctor. After a series of examinations by doctors, Cong Cong was diagnosed with autism, which made Chen Fang unable to accept it for a while.

Because of dazedness and anxiety, Chen Fang became increasingly emaciated. "It was the darkest time of my life and I couldn't figure out why my child was getting autism. At that time, it felt like the sky was about to fall, but fortunately, everything was slowly getting better. Chen Fang smiled when telling this past, and from her face, the reporter saw the optimism and strength of a mother.

Cong Cong is the youngest child with autism in the rehabilitation center hospital, in order to make the child recover better, Cong Cong's mother tried to narrow the circle of friends as much as possible and had enough time to accompany her son. For half a year, she has been rehabilitating her son while learning rehabilitation methods on her own. "When the child returns to the ward after recovery, I will often teach him some simple passwords and repeat them over and over again. Once, the child's father took the child to the park, saw the traffic on the road, and the child suddenly said a word 'car'! At that time, the child's father came back to me and said that I was particularly excited. Congcong's mother said that although her son's progress is great, but this is only the first step in the "long march", the rehabilitation training of children with autism is a long process, and the road is still very long to want the child to get out of loneliness.

The reporter came to the sensory classroom of the rehabilitation center hospital and saw that there were sports such as yo-yo boards, colorful balls, and seesaws in the classroom, and the children exercised their coordination skills here. With the help of the teacher, the children walked the balance beam, jumped the box-spring bed... The teacher said that here, children should receive training in touch, bouncing, ontology and language, with the purpose of unifying children's perception. Subsequently, Yue Yue also joined the training. "If she can't learn these basic skills, she won't be able to adapt to society when she grows up!" Yue Yue's mother said worriedly that she very much hoped that the child could learn a little faster and learn more, so that she could return to normal people's lives as soon as possible.

"Give them more care and warmth"

"Come, listen to the music and applaud together, awesome!" In the group class, I saw a teacher, Zhang Yu'e, kneeling face to face with the children, and tirelessly demonstrating the movements for them over and over again. The reporter noticed that through the patient guidance of the teachers and physical contact, although the 3-year-old Xinxin reacted slowly, she also completed the password one by one.

The child has a training session.

"A class is often sweaty, no easier than ordinary lectures." Zhang Yu'e said patience is the biggest test for special education teachers, children with autism have difficulty concentrating, and a simple password has to be trained for months or more. "Their progress cannot be measured by test scores, and every time the children look at each other, respond to their voices, and make subtle movements are a huge reward for us." All we have to do is create a warm world for our children, build friendships with them, and watch them gradually open up and be willing to communicate with themselves, no matter how tired it is. ”

"For autism, rehabilitation training is currently considered the best means, with an emphasis on early intervention, and the golden time for treatment is under 6 years old." Su Xiaolong, director of the rehabilitation area of the traditional rehabilitation department of the Municipal Rehabilitation Center Hospital, said that in the past, many parents were completely unaware of autism and did not realize the difference between their children and normal children. Delayed the best expectation of the child's treatment, now the parents' awareness has improved, and rehabilitation training has been carried out as soon as the disease is found, and the treatment effect has been greatly improved.

"There are more than 130 children with cerebral palsy, intellectual disability and autism in our hospital, including about 47 with autism. Autism is one of the diseases in the rehabilitation department of children with a high incidence, because the clinical manifestations of children are very different, in addition to daily group classes, one-on-one rehabilitation training is required. Su Xiaolong said that in order to fully understand the situation of the child, each child's emotional, perceptual cognition, speech, fine motor, social and life self-care ability and other aspects of the defects will be professionally assessed, and reasonable short-term goals and long-term goals will be formulated accordingly, so that the rehabilitation plan will be more full and the rehabilitation effect will be more prominent. (The children and their families interviewed are pseudonyms)

Reporter's Note:

Seeing this special group of children, the reporter's heart was particularly sad and helpless. They have bright eyes, and their smiling faces when they are happy are warm. But in the process of communication, the sudden high-decibel sound instantly pulled the reporter back to reality. During interviews, from time to time, children hold the reporter's hand or smile at the reporter.

The children who met at the Municipal Rehabilitation Center Hospital were only a small part of this group. In fact, the number of hidden, "captive" at home, unknown groups of autistic children in the vast sea of people is far more than that. I hope that the society will pay more attention and policy support, so that more and more people will pay attention to the "children of the stars", care for them, accept them, and let them grow up in the same environment as normal children.