We chanced upon the Colors of Autism Spectrum Paintings and Photographs exhibit at the SM North EDSA’s The Block Saturday night.

We seldom venture to this mall nowadays so I was so happy to be able to see the exhibited works of children with autism.

Here are some of the photos that I quickly took. My son was starting to have a tantrum and didn’t want to stay on that floor because he wanted to eat already. This is going to be a separate post.

Colors of Autism Spectrum, August 29 - 31, 2008, The Block, SMNE

Some of the photos and news articles in the exhibit.

Sit.

One of the first things children need to do before they are ready to do some learning.

Sit.

One of the precursors in determining the attention span of a child.

Of course,not because a child is sitting down does not mean that the child is ready to learn.

For children with language processing problems, this is how to tell them to sit down. Not “Come sit here on the red chair.” or “I need you to sit now so we can start our lesson.” Chances are they will not be able to grasp if the message was about coming, sitting, the red chair, the starting, the lesson.

Why do children need to learn how to sit?

They sit when they eat. They sit when they do table top activities. They sit when they need to have a haircut. They sit in church. They sit when they are traveling. They sit when they wait for their turn at the doctor’ clinic. They sit when they watch tv and play with their computer games.

On the other hand, sitting does not mean that there is learning happening. There are those who just sit and not squirm but are not really learning anything.

Some children learn better when they are on the move.

Those schools that have the “Sit-down-and-listen-to-the-teacher” method should be avoided, if there are other alternative school. Children are active individuals and they won’t sit still for a long time. It is important to alternate both movements and table-top activities for them.

Click these Symptoms of ADHD and What to do if you Suspect Your Child has a Learning Disability?

This article, A Letter to My Grandmother by Dale S. Brown describes what she went through when she was growing up.

Another wonderful read: Beware the Sitting Trap.

Michael Savage is a radio host who is making a stir among the advocates for persons with Autism, specifically parents of children with autism.

What did he say and do then, asks the curious.

He said last week that children with autism is “a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out” in a telephone interview.

No, he is not apologizing and he is standing by what he said.

The following were what he said in his radio show which airs every weekday:

“My main point remains true,” Mr. Savage said in the interview. “It is an overdiagnosed medical condition. In my readings, there is no definitive medical diagnosis for autism.”

Mr. Savage suggested that “99 percent of the cases” of autism were a result of lax parenting. “They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life.’ ” Among the other admonitions he felt children with autism should be hearing, he said, were: “ ‘Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’ ”

These are nasty remarks, hurtful to those parents who are doing their best to help their children.

So how have parents and advocates reacted?

Click here to read.

I have written about how it is both a blessing and a difficulty to have children diagnosed as having autism here.

When i was a new special ed teacher, I found a friend in the person of the mom of a brilliant student. She also blogs and calls herself KittyMama. KittyMama’s medical career took a backseat when her second born son was diagnosed as having autism.

She writes well superbly, mostly about their family’s daily struggles and her thoughts as a mother. I have cried countless times when I read her posts.

There is one post, however that made me think how really difficult it is to do things that seem ordinary for us folks. Flying.

No, of course, not the fly-with-your-wings sort of thing but taking a flight. In an airplane.

There were instances when people have been asked to not fly with an airplane because of the behavior of the children who were diagnosed as having autism.

Click here (who repeatedly said “bye,bye plane” during the safety speech ) and here (about the toddler who was having a tantrum) to read about what happened why they were booted off the plane.

Oh, on another note, there was this Kindergarten teacher who asked her students for a vote whether the student who was displaying behavior problems should be removed from their class or not. The vote was 14-2. Click here.

Or maybe being kicked out of church. Of the what? Yes, the church. Click here.

Its not about having been booted off the plane or out of the Kindergarten class that really made me a little emotional. It was the reactions, the comments of the people about the incidents.

People can judge what they see but would that even help what the parents are going through? How would they respond to these situations if it was them who were parents of these children?

I know it is not a good situation to be in when in a plane about to take a flight and there is a child having a fit.

I know that it takes a lot of patience and grit, plus the help of an aide or another teacher, to be able to restrain or even help a child who can’t cope in a classroom situation.

I know because I have been there.

It is not a good position to be in charge of a group when everyone else is enjoying a wonderful day of learning and there is this one child who refuses to do what everyone is doing. Coupled with the fact that he/she distracts everyone else.

So what do parents have to say in these situations? Click here, and here.

Having a child diagnosed with autism is both a blessing and at the same time, difficult.

It is a blessing because with all the communication, social skills and behavioral issues (here is an example) that they have to go through, they learn about making sacrifices, putting aside their own dreams to be able to spend time with their child, having tons of patience and will power to make things better. Struggling through daily tasks which could be done in a breeze if it weren’t for the autism in the child are endured.

Tears fall. What-ifs are asked. Stares and back talks if not ignored, break their hearts. Help is sought.

Hopes are sometimes perked up by the small steps to progress.

At times, one step of progress that is observed is gone when several back steps happen. What has been seen as progress would be done all over again.

Not all is lost though, for parents develop better attitudes and they themselves know themselves better. In the end they could either come out as a stronger person.

Or having a defeated spirit.

Why? Because there is an “ugly” side to these struggles in the form of instances where the children are discriminated upon, and their parents too. Doubly so.

They are judged as incompetent parents, not being able to discipline their children. The children are judged to be stubborn, unruly, misbehaving and impolite.

Simple tasks like going to church, going to the park, asking for help, and completion of activities for daily living like eating or dressing up are struggles.

What much more does it take to have them do more complicated tasks like walking down the crowded streets, schooling, taking a bus ride, taking a plane ride to go somewhere far, the possibility of taking Caribbean cruises or even dealing with death and grief?

Perhaps the most difficult question to give an answer to is when parents ask “Who will take care of my child(ren) with Autism when I die?”

Every Saturday, participants post photos based on a theme. The theme for this Saturday, June 14, 2008 is EMOTION (S). Being a Special Ed teacher, I have been privy to emotions running high: with the parents of my students, with colleagues, with the children themselves and with myself. I am a very emotional person, I cry easily and am passionate about the things that I believe in. Below are some photos I wish to share to show why emotions played a big part:

A lot of people came to the Angels Walk for Autism which we attended. In the photo are my co-workers, Occupational therapists and speech therapists (not in the photo). Some children performed on stage and everyone was proud about each child’s accomplishment.

A long-time student, JEM, performing guitar accompaniment for me while the song plays on his Nokia Express Music phone. Good job, JEM I am so proud of you!

JP, sitting down to do a table top activity for a change, instead of running around the room. I hope he would be able to adapt this behavior when he goes back to school. Your mom was very happy about this

The last day of our Storytelling/Narrative Group for the summer (school starts in June here in the Philippines) where everyone brought their favorite books and told these stories in front of the group. All in all, we were really happy about the results If only I could show their happy faces. That is my son, Julian at the rightmost photo. The girl in green is my daughter Tania. Below is a rather emotional entry for me, which I wrote a post here in my other blog as an entry for another Photo Meme participated by Filipinos.

Here is a part of my post: I was uncomfortable, I was not happy, not because they were asking for money but because its late. Its past 9pm! Shouldn’t they be resting? Why do they still continue what they were doing? This puzzled me. Isn’t this a form of child abuse? Isn’t this child exploitation? My feelings were hurt for them, I was “on fire” so I had to get the camera and to take their photos. I wanted to write about this, to vent off my steam about this kind of treatment, about this kind of system. And to think they are staying with a foundation. Why do they have to do this to them? May I ask what photo drew a unique emotion from you? photohunt