harc is the Hertfordshire branch of the National Autistic Society (NAS) and was formed in September 1998 as an independent registered charity based in Hatfield. It was created by a small group of parents (:-D) concerned about the availability of services for their children. In 2007 harc joined forces with the NAS becoming the Hertfordshire branch of the national charity.
Life was simpler when his obsession was making electronic sensors flash at him: moving into, and out of, their beams.
He is working to overcome challenges created by minute chemical imbalances, or organic differences, in the brain. Re-programming: overwriting the behaviours learned from flash points or visual fiction, takes time. He has linear pathways. We have to retrace each step from the here to the place where he learned the inappropriate action, then we can, literally, write new instructions with him.
Fleets of carers have been working with him for a few years now. Some have been working against him: managing through the path of least resistance.
I am preparing him for life beyond the family home: a necessary stage. Working to find the individuals who will learn in one year what trial and error taught us, much more painfully, over a much longer period of time.
But the sight of more socially-skilled local youth lining up on the path opposite our house to watch him dance in his room fills me with ____________ (feel free to add an adjective here – any one of them could be appropriate.)
When we are out I cannot predict who he will target. I have learned to read people and to predict their actions. Sonshine has never explained his methodology. I learned to observe as he does.
I think understanding the human condition is the foundation of all writing.
Being a parent is awesome.
AWESOME:
1. Causing awe; appalling; awful; as, an awesome sight.
2. Expressive of awe or terror.
WHAT INSPIRES AWE IN YOU?
