AGXStarseed
Well-Known Member
(Not written by me)
THE father of a six-year-old boy with autism has challenged the idea that the condition is a disability - and believes the notion can help other families with autistic children.
Guy Shahar is writing a book about autism
Guy Shahar who lives with his son Daniel in south west London wants to redefine the condition in a bid to change the way some parents understand their children.
He said that far from being a disability, autism is simply a condition of ‘profound sensitivity to emotional and sensory stimulus’, and that if they are properly understood and treated accordingly, autistic children have ‘astonishing potential’.
Guy has written a book called Transforming Autism, based on his family’s quest to make a meaningful improvement to their own extremely autistic toddler, who Guy said is now ‘thriving’ in a mainstream school.
Autism is a lifelong, developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to other people.
The National Autistic Society said the condition affects people in different ways, but some of the characteristics of the condition include difficulty with social communication, interaction and restricted and repetitive behaviours and interests.
Some people may find it hard to use, or understand, facial expression or tone of voice.
Guy said: “The heart of the message is that autism is not a disability. If we create conditions around children with autism for them to develop and grow we can benefit from that."
Contrary to the popular belief that autistic individuals are emotionally disconnected, Transforming Autism claims they are in fact acutely emotionally aware, and that it is precisely because of their extreme sensitivity to the sorts of emotional expressions they encounter daily – which they often perceive to be intense and negative – that they feel overwhelmed and forced to attempt to cut themselves off from what is going on around them.
Guy’s book argues the only way to ‘truly transform’ the life of an autistic child is to change the environment where they spend most of their time into one of ‘peace, support and warmth’, so that they have the space to freely express themselves.
Guy said his family opted out of taking the traditional medical route and a preoccupation with diagnosis, and sought alternatives that they believed could make a real difference.
The book recounts the simple approaches they were exposed to, and how they implemented these to transform their son’s life.
Their journey included a visit to a specialist clinic in Israel, which was dedicated to the family alone for three weeks, and three years of individual play therapy at home – supported by student and volunteer therapists – which saw huge improvements in Daniel’s quality of life.
Guy describes his son as ‘incredibly kind’.
“There is not a bad bone in his body,” he added. “He is so considerate of everyone. When Daniel was two, his autism was severe.
“Now it isn’t severe at all. If you see him in the situation where he is interacting with other children you would now there was something different about him. When he is out and interacting with other adults it is very difficult to notice.”
Guy said teachers were much more open to his way of thinking about autism.
“When Daniel was two the medical professionals considered him to be on the severe end of the spectrum.”
The book explains the ideas behind the therapy - which the family now use every day - and describes the results. It introduces new therapies which the family have used to create a ‘safe and inviting environment around Daniel in order for him to develop his happiness and resilience’.
Guy said the book ends with a ‘heartening depiction’ of Daniel’s current condition and the immense kindness which his family say is evident in his personality.
He said he hopes Transforming Autism will make the family’s methods available to parents and carers who might otherwise never come across them.
“We really want to transform parents’ understanding of autism,” said Guy. ”We want to give them help and give them ways to bring about some changes. It is aimed at the parents because they are the ones who see the changes in their children.”
Guy said he doesn’t think there is enough information given to parents who have autistic children.
“There is very little to help the people directly caring for autistic children to be able to help them. You get told do this three times a day and it might make certain behaviours better. But you aren’t understanding who your child really is.”
A recent drama on the BBC called The A Word brought the subject of autism in to many households where it wasn’t a commonly understood condition.
It described a how a family copes with their five-year-old son who has autism and the problems the family faces coping with his behaviour.
Guy said: “I think the bits that were about the relationship with the child were very interesting. There were some parts you could relate to with the parents not really knowing what to do or how to cope.”
Guy only decided to write a book about his experiences with his son after being persuaded by a colleague.
He initially said he didn’t have a clear memory of what had happened to their family, that they were still in the process of dealing with the autism and so didn’t have any firm conclusions to draw, and that he didn’t have time to read a book let alone write one.
“But that evening, I was surprised to find myself sitting in front of the computer and typing out the introduction. A little over six weeks later, I had a 50,000 word book in front of me. It was never something I wanted to do.”
During those six weeks, Guy became ill, unable to go to work, and barely able to walk around the house.
“Some days, I wasn’t even able to focus on reading or answering an email, and yet, somehow, I would knock out two or 3000 words of the book. It was as if it was coming from a different place. I didn’t know what was going to come next until I had actually typed it.
“I didn’t need to worry about what I remembered or what conclusions I could draw – it all just came organically while I was sitting and writing.”
It was with the same approach he created the Transforming Autism blog.
“If you’d asked me 2 months ago whether I had any intention of starting a blog, I would have said never,” he said. “I didn’t have any idea how to do such a thing, and it would have just seemed so daunting.
“But, I somehow found myself surfing the internet to work out how to do it, then making some tentative steps to start a basic blog, and when it slowly started to look like it could be really useful as a way of inspiring other parents and carers of autistic children, I went all the way and then published it.”
Transforming Autism will initially be available worldwide via Amazon.
SOURCE: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style...isability-extreme-sensitivity-to-surroundings
THE father of a six-year-old boy with autism has challenged the idea that the condition is a disability - and believes the notion can help other families with autistic children.
Guy Shahar is writing a book about autism
Guy Shahar who lives with his son Daniel in south west London wants to redefine the condition in a bid to change the way some parents understand their children.
He said that far from being a disability, autism is simply a condition of ‘profound sensitivity to emotional and sensory stimulus’, and that if they are properly understood and treated accordingly, autistic children have ‘astonishing potential’.
Guy has written a book called Transforming Autism, based on his family’s quest to make a meaningful improvement to their own extremely autistic toddler, who Guy said is now ‘thriving’ in a mainstream school.
Autism is a lifelong, developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to other people.
The National Autistic Society said the condition affects people in different ways, but some of the characteristics of the condition include difficulty with social communication, interaction and restricted and repetitive behaviours and interests.
Some people may find it hard to use, or understand, facial expression or tone of voice.
Guy said: “The heart of the message is that autism is not a disability. If we create conditions around children with autism for them to develop and grow we can benefit from that."
Contrary to the popular belief that autistic individuals are emotionally disconnected, Transforming Autism claims they are in fact acutely emotionally aware, and that it is precisely because of their extreme sensitivity to the sorts of emotional expressions they encounter daily – which they often perceive to be intense and negative – that they feel overwhelmed and forced to attempt to cut themselves off from what is going on around them.
Guy’s book argues the only way to ‘truly transform’ the life of an autistic child is to change the environment where they spend most of their time into one of ‘peace, support and warmth’, so that they have the space to freely express themselves.
Guy said his family opted out of taking the traditional medical route and a preoccupation with diagnosis, and sought alternatives that they believed could make a real difference.
The book recounts the simple approaches they were exposed to, and how they implemented these to transform their son’s life.
Their journey included a visit to a specialist clinic in Israel, which was dedicated to the family alone for three weeks, and three years of individual play therapy at home – supported by student and volunteer therapists – which saw huge improvements in Daniel’s quality of life.
Guy describes his son as ‘incredibly kind’.
“There is not a bad bone in his body,” he added. “He is so considerate of everyone. When Daniel was two, his autism was severe.
“Now it isn’t severe at all. If you see him in the situation where he is interacting with other children you would now there was something different about him. When he is out and interacting with other adults it is very difficult to notice.”
Guy said teachers were much more open to his way of thinking about autism.
“When Daniel was two the medical professionals considered him to be on the severe end of the spectrum.”
The book explains the ideas behind the therapy - which the family now use every day - and describes the results. It introduces new therapies which the family have used to create a ‘safe and inviting environment around Daniel in order for him to develop his happiness and resilience’.
Guy said the book ends with a ‘heartening depiction’ of Daniel’s current condition and the immense kindness which his family say is evident in his personality.
He said he hopes Transforming Autism will make the family’s methods available to parents and carers who might otherwise never come across them.
“We really want to transform parents’ understanding of autism,” said Guy. ”We want to give them help and give them ways to bring about some changes. It is aimed at the parents because they are the ones who see the changes in their children.”
Guy said he doesn’t think there is enough information given to parents who have autistic children.
“There is very little to help the people directly caring for autistic children to be able to help them. You get told do this three times a day and it might make certain behaviours better. But you aren’t understanding who your child really is.”
A recent drama on the BBC called The A Word brought the subject of autism in to many households where it wasn’t a commonly understood condition.
It described a how a family copes with their five-year-old son who has autism and the problems the family faces coping with his behaviour.
Guy said: “I think the bits that were about the relationship with the child were very interesting. There were some parts you could relate to with the parents not really knowing what to do or how to cope.”
Guy only decided to write a book about his experiences with his son after being persuaded by a colleague.
He initially said he didn’t have a clear memory of what had happened to their family, that they were still in the process of dealing with the autism and so didn’t have any firm conclusions to draw, and that he didn’t have time to read a book let alone write one.
“But that evening, I was surprised to find myself sitting in front of the computer and typing out the introduction. A little over six weeks later, I had a 50,000 word book in front of me. It was never something I wanted to do.”
During those six weeks, Guy became ill, unable to go to work, and barely able to walk around the house.
“Some days, I wasn’t even able to focus on reading or answering an email, and yet, somehow, I would knock out two or 3000 words of the book. It was as if it was coming from a different place. I didn’t know what was going to come next until I had actually typed it.
“I didn’t need to worry about what I remembered or what conclusions I could draw – it all just came organically while I was sitting and writing.”
It was with the same approach he created the Transforming Autism blog.
“If you’d asked me 2 months ago whether I had any intention of starting a blog, I would have said never,” he said. “I didn’t have any idea how to do such a thing, and it would have just seemed so daunting.
“But, I somehow found myself surfing the internet to work out how to do it, then making some tentative steps to start a basic blog, and when it slowly started to look like it could be really useful as a way of inspiring other parents and carers of autistic children, I went all the way and then published it.”
Transforming Autism will initially be available worldwide via Amazon.
SOURCE: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style...isability-extreme-sensitivity-to-surroundings
