I caution parents and those who know they suffer any level of autism, from relying on what is termed ‘experts’. Generally, experts study about autism through a university programme of learning. I am not against university; having myself acquired both undergraduate and postgraduate studies. It is like a person blind from birth trying to teach a sighted person how to paint, or someone deaf from birth trying to conduct an orchestra. If the experts had their way I would never have attended university, never have become one of the youngest radio announcers in the country – at a time when there were only five or six other women in similar positions.
There is one question I like to ask when I hear about an ‘expert’ in autism. Generally such speakers or authors are referred to as ‘world leader’, ‘leading expert’ or similar. Parents and sufferers should ask this question – according to whom; their mom or the person who wrote the copy?
The greatest difficulty in autism at the moment; and I have both the business sagacity and training, the education and experience in teaching parents and the personal experience of high-functioning autism to comment, is the not-for-profit status. Effectively people teaching and training in the area of autism know it is something that requires very little ‘evidence’ that you have been highly successful or achieved an outstanding or even minor result. This means that the industry is attractive to people who want to work one-on-one or in small groups; there is already some work done that suggests these people may not be the most suitable conduits of knowledge or training for either parents or sufferers at of any age or stage on the continuum of autism. Many people who ‘teach’ autistic children and or teens would simply not survive in the real world of face-to-face teaching; and yes I am sure if that raised your hackles you are one of the rare exceptions. Indeed, even psychological therapy is fraught with similar questions – after all the client rarely pays their own fees or gives strong opinion on who they are going.
Yes I have high functioning autism; and yes it gives me an insight that others do not have – into the world of the autistic experience. One example is when I worked training the ‘almost’ unemployable for a badly run international organisation who supposedly were supporting autistic people but really wanted just to keep them in courses so they got continued government funding. One young man about 24 years of age appeared next door to my office with his mother for an assessment for a place in my class. The psychologist ‘an expert in autism’ and the mother were desperate to get him into my class. So; since I was not in class, and in my office next door, the psychologist asked if I would assess him as she could not decide. Jason, was a tall, delightful young man whom I liked immediately-even if he did look at the lights, focus on the fans and stretch his fingers around in the air-all the usual characteristics of an autistic person. The class required students to write; material similar to what they would in the work place. To begin with I asked Jason to write a couple of paragraphs about home; even his special interest if he wanted to do so. I gave examples of the work I wanted and discussed it with him. This took a very long time and before I had finished chatting with him his mother was complaining that she did not have time to stay. The psychologist was saying that I had far more patience than she did – personally I think the reactions of the mother and the psychologist were exactly what had held Jason back. We who live in the autistic world do not have a neuros time frame – until we begin to work successfully in the world of work or participate fully in school. Jason eventually wrote the paragraphs I wanted and the work was at a standard far beyond what his mother and the psychologist said he could produce. Jason was not suitable for my class because he needed a lot of concentrated one-on-one work to give him the skills in focusing on a goal and achieving that goal. This is something the parents could have taught from the day he was diagnosed, but the mother said it was just too much to do for so little result. Be very careful whom you choose to assist you with your child’s or your own journey in autism.
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