Dealing with autism can be very challenging, not only for parents, but for people who do not fully understand what this disability is.
Autism is a brain development disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. It is also more common in boys.
My brother, Gary, is autistic. Of course we did not know it was autism until he was seventeen years old. He is now forty-two. According to my mother, Gary developed normally as a baby. He was just a very quiet child. He entered kindergarten and functioned pretty okay, if not a bit slowly. The teachers recognized something was wrong, but still kept him on in the school. After kindergarten he entered primary (elementary) school. However, the teachers did not want to keep him because he was not functioning as a child his age should. That was the end of my brother’s schooling.
My parents took Gary to different doctors who could not find anything wrong with him. They also tried to get him into one of the very few schools for children with disabilities but were unsuccessful. He grew up without any formal education.
At age seventeen my mother met a lady who, when she saw Gary, recognized that his condition was autism. She was a teacher who lived in America and dealt with children with autism. She came back home to try and open a school for children with disabilities. While here, she tutored my brother privately and he was making very good progress. He learned to read, write his name, and do simple arithmetic. Unfortunately, she had to leave to go back to America because she was not getting the support to open the school. Again, my brother’s learning came to a halt.
Gary’s autism is one of the severe types, but not so severe that he cannot learn. He can speak, but not very well. He can understand certain things you tell him, but not everything. He is very skilled with his hands and very intelligent. The woman who started tutoring him said if he had gotten the schooling he needed from an early age, he would have entered the regular school system easily. It’s just that the teachers we had then were not trained to handle children like him.
We now have an Autistic Society in Trinidad and Tobago. They are doing wonders for these children and their parents who desperately need the support. My mother is an active member and is getting treatment for Gary that he was denied many years ago. The professionals say that he is not too old to learn.
