Our experiments with Autism - A never ending journey

  Inference He strived to see what the images hid and read the words deliberately left out Tried to decode mood by one's body language Deduce by reason what was not explicitly told yet there remained blanks to be filled... in varying situations, weren't there? I guess he knew that he only had to look for cues to interpret, still, I had to prepare him in complex situations to put him at ease when he'd face them He's logical and applies his knowledge Yet it's some work to create the bigger picture for who pays attention to every small detail And though you see a mature, confident person today For inferring subtle happenings in a scene, to connect the bits of hints and to build on it, Practising situations of gradually increasing complexity helped and made much difference I look back and notice how it reflects in his composure today By, Anagha Jawalekar In the last blog post, I had shared that year 2020 was fruitful for both Akshat and me. Akshat not only honed his typ

  Parallax (Akshat's viewpoint) I know what I want to pick out of all the odd things arranged in front of me... and in front of you. You can see it too as clear as if it shouts out its name "Here I am, just pick me up!" 'Go for it,' you encourage so I pick it up, only except it's not the same thing and it's not even what I intended to pick On your turn though the pointer shifts back to correct place and you pick the very thing As if we are looking at the same set of things from a different space each. By, Anagha Jawlekar 1.     VISUAL PERCEPTION  When I found out that visual perception could improve Akshat's typing skills, I worked on it thoroughly for 4-5 months. I used picture cards, blocks, tangram puzzles, odd-one-out puzzles with pictures and alphabets, etc., to do different activities. Initially, I did simple ones to engage him and gradually increased the complexity. Nowadays, ample resources are available on the internet for visual perception an

  Out of sight (Parent Viewpoint) Found our way n number of times, no matter what, so far, we have How, then, could we be lost this time? I ask myself, as it doesn't make sense it can't be a dead end -no! Perhaps, there's  a path through it, in disguise Shouldn't I retrace our steps once? Or get a better view like from a bird's eye Indeed sometimes one wise step back, does but two steps forwards imply. By, Anagha Jawalekar Hello readers, I hope you had a great time reading the guest post by Ms. Archita Basu.  So, resuming our journey again and sharing  how I worked on Akshat’s typing skills. As I mentioned in the last post, we started facing limitations in the LetMeTalk app, as there was no way to form sentences in that. Therefore, I decided to work on Akshat’s typing once again in May 2018 (I had tried it earlier also around 2013 but left it because he did not pick up at all and I did not know how to work). As he could read and identify words on cards easily, I

  Dear readers, giving a pause to my story, I would like to post a guest post by Ms. Archita Basu. Ms. Archita Basu has been my mentor for the past three years and guiding me with Akshat's language and emotional skills. I   consider myself lucky to get connected with her and thankful to her that she accepted my request to write for my blog. With her constant support and guidance, Akshat and I have evolved as better human beings and learned that, after all, the mind matters.   About Ms. Archita Basu: Ms. Archita Basu is a parent to an adult with ASD. Besides being passionate about autism, she has done Master's in English from Calcutta University. Her core autism education has been in M.Ed in autism from Birmingham University. She has authored a chapter in the book, Lives with Autism(2014), edited by Dr. Steve Mee, Autism Programme Leader at the University of Cumbria, UK. She has worked as a parental co-trainer with the trailblazing Inclusive Solutions, UK, and has certified

  After practicing and regularly using it, Akshat picked up well with the app. He now understood that he could communicate his needs, wants, and thoughts through the app. Every day, I try that, he can get more and more opportunities to communicate through the app. Still, he rarely gets a chance to communicate with others through the app. Therefore, I am a bit concern about generalization. However, he is now habitual of using it with me, so I make sure that most of our routine communication should happen through the app only.  Along with the app, I was also working on his cognitive and language skills and following are some basic rules that helped me on working his communication and language. In addition, my observations helped me to plan the next step, and reading Bill Nason helped me understand his condition and Autism as a whole. Give instructions as per child’s processing level : Earlier, Akshat could only process one instruction at a time, so I had to pause after ever

The Medium (Akshat's viewpoint) Everyday I see you struggle  trying to reach me And you do reach me, but, how do I acknowledge that  If I could truly reach you I would tell you more  than my unsaid words ever told you about And then your questions could have those answers than vainly echo anyway a thousand times in my head. I wish I could show you how a vacuum surrounds me, stopping my voice from travelling through. My actions grab your attention but do not convey the real thing, and everything that I could if... If there was a medium to connect and to share a snapshot of my mind with you. By, Anagha Jawalekar Come, let's delve into our communication journey started in 2015. After beginning the homeschooling with Akshat, almost after a year, he started showing some behaviors like jumping, moving in the house all the time, least sitting span while doing activities, and no attention. To me, it seemed that behaviors were because of sensory issues. So, I consulted an Occupational T