School of open hearts: children with autism.

While no scientist can say why a cheerful, loving to play a kid at the age of about one and a half years suddenly begins to plunge into himself: ceases to respond to the name, does not want to play, stops catching his mother's eyes. All this can be a sign of a complex disease - autism.

Life with Autism.

"If you saw a person with autism, you saw only one person with autism," experts say. The spectrum of manifestations of this disease is so wide that professionals say not so much about autism as about disorders of the autism spectrum (RAS). A person with autism can have either high or medium or low intelligence, he can be quiet or noisy, he may be afraid of tactile contact or strive for it, autism can be the only disorder or one of a long list of pathologies. The only thing that unites all people with autism, regardless of the degree of their disorder, is the inability to communicate and build relationships with another person.

The specialists of the Center for Social and Speech Adaptation and Intensive Care for Children with Severe Violations worked for several years on the solution of this problem - inability to social interaction. They worked not alone, but in close cooperation with the education department and, of course, the parents of children with autism. One of the methods that helps a child with RAS to adapt to this world is training in a resource class. The resource class assumes that a child with autism will attend classes with his peers. How many will be these classes: one or more - depends on the willingness of the child. Being in the company of the most ordinary children, the child with the RAS acquires the norms of behavior in society, learns to communicate.

For the first time in the first class.

Merry music, zadornaya charging. In a fairly ordinary way, the school day begins in an unusual class. For more than a year the school has been known for its inclusive education (that is, open for children with various health disorders). Since that school year, the school has opened a specialized class for children with autism.

• How did it all start ? - recalls Svetlana Sudakova, director of the school. - It all started with the parents of children with autism. You know, these are very purposeful people. In a way similar to boxers: they never drop their hands. Parents appealed to the department of education, and then to us (to school), so that children are admitted to a regular general education school. For children with an autistic spectrum disorder, this means communication and socialization. And where, how not in the general education school, they will see the norm, how should one behave? We thought for a long time, doubted, because working with children with RAS is very difficult. A child with autism does not know how to behave among other people, and it is difficult to organize children in class. But still we decided and the results are very impressive. Someone began to speak the first syllables, someone - the first words, someone began to pay attention to classmates, to other children. Happy parents, happy children, happy and we are from the work done.

In words, everything sounds pretty simple In fact, behind this is the great professionalism of the organizers and the serious financial costs. For children with autism equipped with a class with the most modern equipment. If the child "overloads", gets tired, he has the opportunity to go into the sensory zone in order to calm down and rest.

Now six children are studying in a special class. A large number of specialists work with a special class. In addition to the teacher, each tutor is engaged in a tutor (assistant teacher). He helps the child to fulfill the tasks of the teacher, attentively follows his condition, escorts him to the dining room, instills basic household skills (such as washing hands, the ability to gently eat on his own, etc.). In addition to the teacher and tutor, the defectologist, speech therapist and psychologist are engaged with children.

Several years ago, the fate of children with autism was predetermined: home schooling, and then - lifelong imprisonment in four walls. For a few years, much has changed: children have the opportunity to study in an ordinary school, to be friends with other children, to learn, to live the ordinary life of an unusual person.

Reference:

• Autism was considered a rare disorder, it is now obvious that this is not so. When specialists learned to identify and identify various manifestations of disorders in autistic disorders, it became clear that autistic disorders are present in about one hundredth child, and boys are four times more likely than girls. Currently, specialists have learned much better to identify autism, which led to the fact that this diagnosis began to put more often than before. But, perhaps, it's not just a matter of diagnosis, and autism has really started to get sick more people. Scientists are trying to establish whether there really is a real increase in the incidence of autism, and if there is, what are the reasons for the growth of this disease worldwide.
• Autism manifestations can be seen in infants (however, experts have not yet come to a consensus that these manifestations can be reliably characterized as RAS) and become more pronounced after a year. Obvious symptoms of autism become closer to two or three years. At this age, as a rule, it is possible to diagnose the presence of autism with confidence. When the child becomes older, most often the symptoms of autism begin to disappear, or their severity becomes weaker, but in most cases they remain to some extent noticeable.