Battling against Autism:

I have been sort of trying to figure out a solution to support the children with autism but personally I don’t like terms autistic or words like disability. Why? To me every child with challenges is unique. It is us, who cannot accept this. My seven year old son is an Aspe and it was very difficult for me accept it but realized the sooner you accept the better is for your child.

The first time when I first had my son accessed and found that he has Asperger I had no clue what I was supposed to do. The doctor told me that in Bangladesh there is no such institution that has expertise to access cases like him.

Last few years I have talking to people at home and abroad trying to find a solution to my son’s problem. I have been talking to experts at home and overseas all these times.

I came across Ms. M A Hook, she is into Adaptive Coaching in Los Angles and she told me ‘let him be a child first, scholar later. And not to push him beyond his abilities.’  But the question remains it is easier said than done, I have been waging war against the education system of the country for last few years. I have come across children with difficult cases of autism, there are quite a few organizations working with autism in Bangladesh and these organizations are comfortable to work with extreme cases but when it comes to cases like my son it is very uncomfortable because these children cannot be addressed. They cannot go to special schools because it will deteriorate their condition and the regular schools do not want to address these children and numbers of these children are increasing at an alarming stage.

We forget that each child matures at different rates. The fastest way to put a child into poor eyesight is to push them into reading and writing too early. Their young bodies are simply not ready for it. The late-maturing children are often the most stable and reliable later in life. Those who have been pushed often become nervous wrecks.

I think it is high time that we try to understand these cases and create an environment for these children where they will have the space to grow. The reality is Thomas Edison tried 3,000 things before he found something that worked as a filament to the light bulb. Were those 3,000 tries failures? He didn't think so. He said, "No, I just found 3,000 things that didn't work, that's all."