I've met a special boy in my Primary 1 cohort this year. Although he's not in my class but I love to talk to him every day because honestly, I do feel a little burdened whenever his name is mentioned. This boy has good looks, very adorable and cute. Although he's in Primary 1, he is very confident and daring to speak. I remembered him calling my colleague 'Auntie' when he first met her. But I guess God is fair... He is special... Literally special. If you watched the show "Breakout" and knows who Zou Jie Ming is, yes, Xavier is exactly the same. He is autistic.
But to a normal person, one may think that he's perfectly normal. He can carry out a conversation with you. Makes you laugh and even talks to his friends. But the difference comes in when you change his routine or take away his things. He will keep repeating himself till you give him that item and in order to fix this, we have to scold and be very firm towards him and he will start to calm down with tears in his eyes, looking at you directly into yours... very enduring isnt it? Oh well, he can behave like that as a child but I really dunno how can this reality world accept him when he is all grown up.
Xavier has a very pretty and hip mother who seemed to teach her son very well. He has good table manners and is polite too. After eating, he will clean the table and clears away all the rice on the table patiently. When you talk to him, he will want to hold your hand and will look into your eyes. However, perhaps it is also due to the fact that the mum is a single mother, Xavier seemed to listen to instructions from the female better and will tend to want hugs or hold the hands of the female teachers. It's ok now but again when he's older, I dunno if he will ween this habit off.
Today, my colleague, the fiercest male teacher scolded him for misbehaving as he refused to stand straight during the national athem. He refused to listen to my colleague and tears swelled up in his eyes yet he still refused to listen and swing his arms around during the athem. However another female colleague went to him and gentlely talked to him, he was fine immediately.
A few days ago, he asked me what's my name and started a conversation in his slang where I assumed, he learns from the cartoons... Today, he asked what's my age... Funny rite? Although he's only 7 years old, his english standard has already reached that of Primary 4 and his Maths is the standard of a Primary 2 child. Smart rite? that's why he can hold a decent conversation with the adults. And he has a sense of morale too. When videos of people involved in accidents are played during assembly, instead of laughing which is totally sick, he put his hands over his face, as if he's watching a horror movie. At least he knows it's something negative...
Because of him, I started to read up more about Austistic kids because I want to know the cause of it. I've seen too many in my school recently. Unfortunately, I found out that stastics show that since 1980s, the number has increased. This could be due to the polluted environment and food we eat. There is no definite cause so you cannot really prevent it and worst, you will not know if the child is austistic till about 3 years old. this is very scary. There is a big spectrum of it and these children can either be the super smarts or the super CMI. Of course those in the main stream schools are mildly austistic and usually the high functioning ones.
Seriously, smart as he is, I really dunno how the real world can accept him in future. No one will want to employ special people. =( If I have money, I would open a company to employ only austistic people in future. They are very hardworking, smart and haf excellent memories. the only thing is I have to deal with their temper...
I pray that the society will learn more about such people and give them a chance in life. As Ben always say, because they looked normal (usually very good looking really), people have high expectation of them and when they cannot perform, they will be eliminated. Sometimes I wonder, so do the parents wants their austistic kids to look abnormal so that people have lower expectation of that (like those mentally disabled) or do they rather have a normal looking kid? What say you? Dillemma isnt it? Of cos, I hope that all my friends will have healthy and normal children la. =)
I wish Xavier all the best in his life. I hope this boy will grow up to be a useful person. anyway, a glimsp of him =p
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