Autism – My Experience ...

A social worker contacted me in spring 2005 to ask whether I would be prepared to offer regular respite care to a three year old boy who has autism.

Put simply - having autism means having different degrees of sensory, social and communication difficulties which can include behaviours that challenge our understanding and management.

I do not pretend to be an expert on autism - my prior personal experience of it is limited to working in my parent’s residential home for adults with learning disabilities (including autism), to an eight week stint on a US summer camp for children with disabilities in 1985, and to having designed and put together an information and fundraising website for a friend of mine whose four year old daughter has autism.

I am however (and I think instinctively that these qualities may help) - open-minded, lateral thinking and interested in human behaviours/relationships. I am not a flappable person and like to approach problems in a quiet and systematic way.

I am also a good learner and a good listener – working on emergency ambulances means that I am not easily shocked and have no time for stereotypical assumptions.

I have listened to and observed the children and parents that come to my setting and have learnt so much from them since I first started to care for their children.

From a parent’s recommendation I have learnt how to help encourage and listen to those children who use their own augmentive picture communication systems – PECS - by attending a brilliantly helpful two day course.

I read books on autism – the best and most insightful being those written by people who themselves have social/communication difficulties or who are themselves parents of children who have autism. (Book recommendations greatfully received!)

Since that first phone call I have now cared for/am still caring for a total of seven young children who have autism and each one has been as lovely and as unique as any other child.