Autism
I read this on CNN.com/us.
“How was your day?” Soma asks.
Before Tito can answer, he obsessively moves around the house, placing the TV remote in its proper place, arranging the salt and pepper shakers just so. Then he sits down in front of his specially designed keyboard to type his response.
“It was like a floating kangaroo that kept itself invisible,” Tito answers.
Tito is Autistic, a poet, an author and his mother’s first pupil.
In his writings, he explains why he doesn’t make eye contact, what it is like to be obsessed with a ceiling fan, and how his brain has trouble processing sound, touch and sight all at once.
His mother refused to accept his condition and finally adopted a method of teaching that is called the Rapid Prompting Method.
She was so successful that she now teaches at the HALO — Helping Autism through Learning and Outreach — center in Austin, Texas.
I have known families with autistic children, but I had never heard of this method before. The children I have known were medicated, given minimal therapy or mostly ignored.
Whether Tito is particularly gifted or this method can work with all but the most severely autistic children I don’t know, but it does give a glimmer of hope.
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