The Loudest Whisper: AUTISM

Today I went to National Autism Society of Malaysia (NASOM), it’s a non-profit, non-government organization that was formed to offer a life-long services to the people with autism. Autism is a complex neuro-behavioral disorder that includes impairments in social interaction and developmental language and communication skills. People with autism are difficult to understand what other people think and feel, they them selves loves to do repetitive behaviors. To read more and know more about Autism, click on this.

Me and few of my friends from UKM went there to get in touch with the autism kids, as our pediatric patients are mostly from those unlucky kids such as autism, down syndrome, even multiple disability kids. The main objective was to learn how to interact with them before we do the eye check up for them. There are a lot of trick and tips to manage them. Unfortunately, its very challenging and taking a lot of time. In one appointment, we probably only can take their Visual Acuity (VA), and their Mohindra/Retinoscopy finding. Its kind of impossible to finish all the clinical tests in one time appointment. For sure.

During my Pediatric Theory class, we are being thought that autism kids are not social-able, they don’t like to see new people around them, they wont change their routines. This wasn’t the first time I see autism kids. I came across so many autism kids, especially in Jeddah and Jakarta, but I have never done any close interactions with them. So this was my first one-to-one interaction with the autism kids, and I have to say, this is the time for us to break the stereotypes that written everywhere in books and journals about these autism kids. Get to know them first, and then make the judgment.

Surprisingly, they were so sweet, they were so cheerful, and adventurous. They really wanted to be near to us, they made an interaction first, even before me and my friends started to try to get close to them. It was way different than what the books always says about these kids. I swear. This experience almost bring me to tears. I met this one kid, named Yamin. He was the only kid that so attached to me, we were so close. He hugged me and kissed me many times, he didn’t let me go anywhere without him next to me. And there was this kid, named Choo. He was so cheerful, happy as a normal kid would be. He greeted us the first time we entered the school. He said “Hello all beautiful girls”, and all of us was laughing our ass off. Such a sweet boy. And the other kid, named Naim. He was the coolest kid on earth I guess, the way he act and speak are effortlessly cool but still friendly. Yes, friendly.

Besides all those happy-cheerful-friendly kids, I also tried to interact with some kids that have severe-autism. One girl named Sarah, 15 years old, she’s so beautiful, thick eyebrows, long eye lashes, beautiful smile, with a shiny hair. Unfortunately, she was in a bad mood so we couldn’t get to know her. The teacher said she loves to hit people around her if her mood is unstable. The other boy named Naveen he’s 18 years old, he was the most untouchable kid in the school, he’s very dependent, no eye contact at all.

After all, these kids was making my day much brighter. I changed my perspective towards these kids. They’re so humble, sweet, happy, and friendly if you know how to interact with them.

Always Unique Totally Interesting Sometime Mysterious

really defines AUTISM :)