My oldest son had to work on a research project at school. We are not sure if he chose the topic or whether the teacher assigned it, but his project was about… autism.
Sigh…
If you are one of my wonderful, loyal readers, you know why the “sigh”. If not, you may want to check out my other posts about autism.
Anyway, he loves computers and the internet, so at school, he went online and researched his topic. No problem there. There was a catch though; there were two sections of the project that he had to complete in his own words, without using the internet.
The first of these sections was “What my teacher should know about me”.
His answer:
*I was born with autism… I think
*I like to use the computer.
*I am a huge fan of the Olympic Games.
I was having some trouble trying to go about how to narrate the rest of this story. I was talking with my wife about it and as usual, she expressed it beautifully and right on point (am I a lucky guy or what?). She said something like, “Do you know how many times we have wished to have a glimpse of what is going through his mind? Well, this is an example!” And of course, she was right, you see, the other “no internet” question was:
“The best way to teach me”
His answer:
*Teach me slowly
*Be patient with me
*Write things down for me
*Say things to me slowly
Some say that to know yourself is an indication of wisdom. I wholeheartedly agree. I needed a reminder. Just because I cannot follow his logic sometimes, it does not mean that his thoughts are random. This young man of mine is always full of surprises…
(:-)
Picture credit: http://m.pinterest.com/wormwood80/cool-autism-stuff/
Pharmacology – Biology – Neuroscience – Science – Research – Planaria – Writing – Education – Autism
Oftentimes I would wonder just what it would be like to enter other people’s minds and see how their thought process goes. A few years back I participated in an event that’s called “For the Kids”, which is basically a mini-olympic event where children with special needs come together to compete in different sports and activities. There were all sorts of kids with conditions ranging from blindness, deafness, ADHD, autism, and many others, and yet I remember every one of them being very happy and excited to participate in the games. They had amazing energy and optimism, especially the kid I was assigned to, who was blind and happily showed us that he had a cell phone that could “talk” in order to tell him what time it was.
I realized then that these children were indeed different, but that pretty much goes the same way for each and every person in the world. It’s only us making a big deal about “differences” (whatever they may be), and we fail to see just how awesome people can be. Even a blind child can get excited because of gadgets despite not being able to see them; even an autistic child can learn great things, though it takes him just a bit longer to do so; even deaf people can feel the beat of music and enjoy it even more than one who can hear.
This is a great post and I very much enjoyed taking a peek inside your son’s mind with you! Thank you for sharing this. 🙂
Thank you for your kind words and for sharing your experience and insight. I loved all your message, but my favorite phrase is “…even an autistic child can learn great things, though it takes him just a bit longer to do so…”
It got me misty-eyed…That’s one of the things that I hope for my boy.
Thank you.
I have had occasion to hang out with Baldscientist’s firstborn son and I love his humor, wit, intelligence, and humor. There is a lot more going on than meets the eye. He is like one of those geode stones that hide their beautiful crystals on the inside in my opinion a reflection of really good loving parents.
Thanks… (:-)
As a teacher this is a really interesting and helpful post. Thanks for sharing this.
Thank you for your kind words…