I just realized why I like working with kids with autism so much. I personally have trouble communicating. Sometimes I know what I want to say and then say something that I completely didn't mean, as if my mouth was my brains enemy. Sometimes, I don't even know if there are words to describe how I am feeling. I'm a visual person and words don't relate as much to me or from me as images or objects do. i always find myself having more comfortable conversations when I am talking to a person who has as much trouble communicating with me as I do with them. I feel like we are both working, instead of feeling intimidated. I also noticed that I tend to have better more relaxed conversations with people whom English is a second language. I have great patience and an extraordinary ear for accents.
So I love that I can relate to the children that I work with. When they get stuck in a language barrier, I try my best to figure a way to get them over it. In the schools and in the neighborhood, other people always step in and try to talk for the child. This prevents them from ever having to do it themselves. Today, I was helping my client play with his neighbors and I had to raise my voice and sternly tell these kids to let him talk for himself. In every game they would try to lead him around and do everything for him. It's hard to make kids understand that some one with autism knows and understands what is going on, it just takes them longer to express themselves.
My client has awesome pantomime skills but his verbal skills are very low. I wish people would notice how great of an actor he is instead of focus on his deficit. At times he speaks 5 word sentences with me but it's a struggle to get him to say a word or two to his mother. If only I had skills to explain how I do what I do... I think its a mixture of patience and acceptance. I'm not trying to get him to say what I want him to say, I wait for him to say what he wants to say, or I playfully cause havoc in his life to force him to say what he needs to say.
