Today I was looking to see what parents think the hardest part about raising a child with autism is. I stumbled upon this blog that was a really detailed blog about all the hard times. The mother says most days it feels like work even when its my day off. She talks about how hard it is to see your child go through these changes and be different than all the other children. Children with autism often have social issues, this was a big concern of this parent in the blog. She says its hard but you learn as you go and it gets better with time. Heres the link to the original blog I was exploring. http://ediann.hubpages.com/hub/Autism-and-hope
While looking through that specific blog there was a youtube video about a 20 year old man named Jordan. The story was told by his mother who has raised him. He was diagnosed at 2 years old, she explains it as being a death when they found out. She called it the death of a dream of how it was supposed to be. His behavior changed dramatically in school and he became very violent. With time they learned how to cope with autism and make it easier on everyone. She has had such a positive experience with Jordan having autism. I love how she calls them differences not a disability. In my opinion children get very discouraged with the word disability. This story really showed me how families make the best out of a terrible situation. The link is below go check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTDmdClWtkc
Also I have a book on hold at the public library. Its titled "Next Stop: A Son With Autism Grows Up. The book is about a young boys struggles and also how his parents coped with the autism and raising him. It should be in by next week :)
I found the video on Jordan interesting! I also love how the mother uses the term differences instead of disability. She says in the video it's because we as a society have a skew view of what is considered "normal". I totally agree with that, what is normal anyways? The mother also mentioned when Jordan was younger she thought there were things "wrong" with him, but then came to accept him as a unique individual not that there was anything wrong with him. Lastly, in the beginning of the video when Jordan was younger it mentioned how he became violent and was frustrated because people didn't understand him and what he's needs were. I can't imagine how frustrated I would be if I was not able to get across what I needed to someone, and they didn't understand me as a person. Have you found anything from the perspective of a person with Autism? I think that would be interesting to read about.
ReplyDeleteHi Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI have really enjoyed reading your blog and the information you have included seems very valuable! I read the blog you attached to this post and also watched the youtube video about Jordan and his mother. I thought the video was very inspiring and gave a great example about how difficult, yet rewarding, having a child with autism can be. There was a student with autism in my internship classroom that was repeating the first grade with my mentor teacher. He also had my mentor teacher for his first year in first grade. When I first saw this child, I didn't think there was anything "different" about him and would never had known that he had autism during the first few weeks unless my teacher had told me. As the year went on, I found out more and more about this student's history. My mentor told me that the previous year he would act out by screaming, hiding under his desk, throwing chairs, attacking his aide, and just being generally unruly in the classroom just like Jordan's mother mentioned in the video while discribing his behavior during the his first years of school. Jordan's mother said that Jordan was tearing posters off of the wall, chewing holes in his shirt, and attacking his aide. Then Jordan's mother said that once she started being "partners" with Jordan, everything changed and his behavior improved. The student in my class really bonded with my mentor teacher and she eventually got him to behave appropriately almost all of the time. However, there were still some instances where he would act out. Some days he would protest about going to the intervention specialist, which my mentor teacher said was because he didn't want to feel different than the other students. This is also similar to Jordan's story. By watching this video, and from my own experience with autistic students, I know that it is absolutely possible for these children to prosper in the world and to behave in a socially acceptable mannor for the most part. Thanks for sharing that video with everyone!
-Megan
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