A Gift or a Curse
Unknown
12/28/2010
4 Comments
I received a book for Christmas and it really hit home for me. It is called The Soul of Autism by, William Stillman. This book incorporates many of my views and opinions regarding Autism. The first chapter however caught me off guard. I guess I was in a pessimistic mood cause when I read, "The World Needs Autism", I thought,"Yeah like I need a hemorrhoid on my ass!!" Hey we all have good and bad days right. I just wasn't in a yeah Autism sort of mood, although after reading this chapter I pulled myself back together.
The author discussed how our society has been working and all the problems it has with being different. Look at the minority groups, why is there such an issue with them? It is because it is not the majority. Most people are not like them. Do we really want our children to conform to this society. Yes, we want them to learn and be productive, but do we want to lose who they are to achieve that? I do not and have stressed before that I don't want to cure my son's Autism. I want to help him cope with it, which means bringing awareness to this issue.
Many people assume that people with Autism on all levels are intellectually inferior. So many parents were told their child would never speak or communicate and were better off institutionalized, but that was not the answer. These children are very intelligent, unfortunately they just cannot express or sometimes verbalize any of it in a way that is socially acknowledged or accepted. For example my son used to scream and point when he wanted something and many other Mom's would tell me I should insist that he ask properly but he really couldn't. The other Mom's felt I was allowing him to act this way.
It goes much deeper than that on all levels. Do you ever look at your child when they are "in their own world" and wonder what they are thinking about? When they suddenly start screaming for what seems like no apparent reason, Do you wonder why? In this book he talked about a spiritual renaissance. He feels that many people with autism have a deeper connection to the spiritual world that is very pure. It is so pure because it comes to them naturally. They don't ask for it or even know what to do with it but it is there.
He talked about a child who would scream and cry out of nowhere until one day he told his mom via a communicator that someone died and he heard it on the radios in the police car. I know that my son can hear things that I cannot but how much does he hear. I wonder if the children that are non verbal have to be that way because it is too much to process all of the spiritual traffic in their minds or do they have to be silent to continue this transmission of information. Maybe it is their purpose to lead us to an evolution. After all if the rates continue to climb like they are there will be more people with Autism on this planet than without.
I have looked at all the negative aspects Autism seems to have had on my life and I look at the flip side as well. Sometimes we as parents get fixated on how many skills our child is lacking. I do it, all the time, but it is important to also focus on their abilities. They do have them, it is just a little harder to unveil. My son is a gift and he holds a gift. His gift is wrapped underneath many different colors and textures of wrapping paper and someday, I will be able to unveil it and know for sure what it is, but I guess I must be patient, loving and accepting.
The author discussed how our society has been working and all the problems it has with being different. Look at the minority groups, why is there such an issue with them? It is because it is not the majority. Most people are not like them. Do we really want our children to conform to this society. Yes, we want them to learn and be productive, but do we want to lose who they are to achieve that? I do not and have stressed before that I don't want to cure my son's Autism. I want to help him cope with it, which means bringing awareness to this issue.
Many people assume that people with Autism on all levels are intellectually inferior. So many parents were told their child would never speak or communicate and were better off institutionalized, but that was not the answer. These children are very intelligent, unfortunately they just cannot express or sometimes verbalize any of it in a way that is socially acknowledged or accepted. For example my son used to scream and point when he wanted something and many other Mom's would tell me I should insist that he ask properly but he really couldn't. The other Mom's felt I was allowing him to act this way.
It goes much deeper than that on all levels. Do you ever look at your child when they are "in their own world" and wonder what they are thinking about? When they suddenly start screaming for what seems like no apparent reason, Do you wonder why? In this book he talked about a spiritual renaissance. He feels that many people with autism have a deeper connection to the spiritual world that is very pure. It is so pure because it comes to them naturally. They don't ask for it or even know what to do with it but it is there.
He talked about a child who would scream and cry out of nowhere until one day he told his mom via a communicator that someone died and he heard it on the radios in the police car. I know that my son can hear things that I cannot but how much does he hear. I wonder if the children that are non verbal have to be that way because it is too much to process all of the spiritual traffic in their minds or do they have to be silent to continue this transmission of information. Maybe it is their purpose to lead us to an evolution. After all if the rates continue to climb like they are there will be more people with Autism on this planet than without.
I have looked at all the negative aspects Autism seems to have had on my life and I look at the flip side as well. Sometimes we as parents get fixated on how many skills our child is lacking. I do it, all the time, but it is important to also focus on their abilities. They do have them, it is just a little harder to unveil. My son is a gift and he holds a gift. His gift is wrapped underneath many different colors and textures of wrapping paper and someday, I will be able to unveil it and know for sure what it is, but I guess I must be patient, loving and accepting.
