Steve, I really don't have any idea what autism is from. It's extremely prevalent these days. Night and day from how it used to be a decade ago. It's a bit concerning.
During a college summer job, I taught an art class etc. to students associated with Good Will Industries - back in those days it was down syndrome, mental retardation and that's where I had my first experience with autism. I have a lot more better understanding of it now, than I did then, but basically the sensory stimulation was something one had to help reduce. It doesn't make sense to put an autistic child in the same class as mentally retarded children because mentally retarded children can be rather loud, which is exactly what an autistic child doesn't need on their sensories.
Something is causing it, I don't know what. I heard one in 500 babies will have autism, then I've heard one in 266. Either number sounds awfully high to me. It is a harder situation to deal with than mental retardation because your normal human warmth (i.e. giving a hug, or meeting the eyes), are very difficult for certain types of autistics. With my sister who has mental retardation, the love really just flows from her. Her warmth is amazing. Somehow I find that easier than autism. Probably because my experience and training level is not adequate to be as effective with autism. It's really something I wish we all were better trained on in society - it would be very hard to be autistic and not be fully understood by society because we aren't trained on it. If one out of 500 babies have autism, why aren't all of us trained on autism in school from day one? Sometimes schools don't teach the right things.
RE: Redundant
Oops, I do that.
Regards,
Amy J |
