Here you will find a brief explanation of "facilitated communication," the method she has brought from Australia.
The autistic child is often a beautiful child. His behavior puzzles and unsettles us because he seems indifferent to your presence. He comes close and pulls your hair, or doesn't answer when you speak to him. He won't meet your eyes; if he speaks, his words come out strangely: he uses "you" to mean "I," or repeats like a parrot what you say. Some emit piercing cries and can have terrible fits of rage. I know autistic young people who cover their ears, others who rock back and forth for hours on end. Often they have unexpected reactions, sometimes violent ones. These children may bite themselves, hit their heads, or turn aggressive toward others. Recently a boy gave me a headbutt so hard I fractured my nose. Mine is a dangerous profession!
How do you respond to a baby who won't reach out his arms and refuses all physical contact? What do you do with a child who, instead of embracing you, bites or scratches you, and who never cries when you leave him?... Some of these children cannot sleep either, and the nights become torture for their parents.
The autistic child doesn't know how to play. When he finds himself with children his own age, he withdraws and stays in his corner. He may become obsessed with an object, spinning it in the air with extraordinary skill. He copes poorly with change and doesn't adapt easily to rules. Some autistic people are very passive; others move constantly.
What causes these strange behaviors? Why do these children ignore you? What do they think? These are questions we still debate without finding clear answers. At certain moments we get the impression we glimpse a spark of intelligence, but soon we are diverted in another direction by some entirely different behavior, and we are forced to say: "No, he doesn't understand anything."
Autism appears before age three. This is one of the diagnostic criteria. Its evolution is highly variable and depends on the severity of the handicap and the form it takes. Numerous "subtypes" exist. The word autism covers different conditions. There are, however, constant symptoms that allow us to group them together: disorders of communication (not only verbal but also gestural), severe difficulties in relating to others, and behavioral oddities. It seems this results from the fact that the autistic child receives a flood of sensations and information that he cannot sort through and analyze. He then retreats into repetitive behaviors that ease the distress.
Certainly the progress of autistic young people depends first and foremost on each one's own abilities (especially neuromotor ones) but it also depends on the quality of their education. At first I believed the autistic child should learn to speak like everyone else. This is actually too difficult. With a very young child, it is necessary to put alternative forms of communication into action right away.
The Difficulties of Family and Social Life
Autistic children are often poorly tolerated. In groups of children with other kinds of handicaps, they are the ones we pay the least attention to: they don't approach others and they are not affectionate the way Down syndrome children are, for instance—children who throw their arms around you and embrace you.
In specialized centers, very few educators receive specific training for autistic children. Generally there's an expectation that the child will take the initiative in activities, when instead we should be proposing them to him. The autistic child lacks spontaneity and must be kept constantly occupied because it is precisely during free time that behavioral disturbances emerge most strongly.
There is a painful lack of appropriate facilities for adolescence. Yet it is precisely at this age that behavioral disturbances intensify: muscle strength has increased and violence takes on destructive forms.
Brothers and sisters accept more or less easily the presence of this troubling child who monopolizes so much of their parents' attention—a child who sometimes shouts for half the day or half the night, who tears up their notebooks or schoolbooks and prevents them from inviting friends over. I know siblings who prefer to deny this child's existence and speak of him to no one. They should be able to confide in someone. I also know others who are an extraordinary support to their parents. But this must not come at the cost of their own lives. Sometimes it is hard to manage all of this.
Changing Our Way of Looking
The future of these children is deeply troubling because autism is a serious and long-lasting disorder. Autistic children become autistic adolescents, and then autistic adults. Recovery is never complete, and there is no miracle cure. Progress happens in small steps; few autistic people gain enough independence to live outside a protected setting. The most advanced often remain naive and immature. In severe cases, parents can do nothing but keep their child with them or place him in a specialized center. Their great worry concerns the future of this young adult when they are no longer here.
The new technique of "facilitated communication" has shown me that the autistic person, despite his apparent indifference, experiences profound feelings nonetheless. One of them wrote: "You must guess the weeping that is inside me, even though I shed no tears and I flash great smiles." These words reveal that intelligence and inner life are real, even if hidden behind appearances. What matters most now is that we change how we look at autistic people.
- A. M. Vexian - O. et L. n. 113
School IntegrationHave the school integrations you know about had good results or not? What were the greatest challenges? Have they been resolved, and in what ways? Teachers, special education teachers, social workers, educators: share your experiences with us.