Please, DON'T!

I spend most of my life with supposedly non-verbal autistic people.

My daily communication now is with autistic non-verbal, those of the very severe form, level 3,

those with the severe mental retardation

and those with the severe disability... (That's what they call them....you know clearly those of you who follow me that I disagree CLEARLY with this canning of people into shelves of levels and diagnoses as if autistics are products for sale in a supermarket.)

Than with my neurotypical fellow human beings.

And that's what I chose.

For several reasons, most of them social -reasoning-, these people in the above categories CANNOT represent themselves.

So they are guided according to expert labels by both them and their parents.

As well as by their misunderstood behaviors, at first glance, given their different communication.

I

unfortunately or fortunately,

I'm in the middle.

Yes.

In the middle.

The problem is that they understand everything,

they observe everything,

they notice details you never even imagined and, sometimes, you don't even see them yourself.

Also, many times they witness words, actions, behaviors that no other person would experience in their position...

They also witness what is said about them.

Countless times I have been visited by families who have had out-of-this-world experiences in my sessions.

And by unreal I mean people "lost causes" begin to communicate, talk and take an active role equal to "you and me" for the first time.

And what they communicate to me in front of their parents is most often outrageously clever to the point that I dare not make it public.

So because I AM IN THE MIDDLE:

I make a heartfelt plea:

Focus on their positives.

Forget the difficulties. We all have them.

Don't publicize their hard, bad times.

We all have them.

We wouldn't want to see them posted online by anyone other than ourselves.

Preserve their dignity as a gem.

More than any other non-autistic person because they are the one who has the ability to show you their discomfort directly, but the autistic person does not.

Not always.

Or rather, the autistic one will also show it to you in a way that can get both sides into trouble that, also can, be difficult for both sides to get out of.

Preserve their dignity.

You.

You first of all.

Only you can. Better than anyone.

You, the parents and guardians of autistic people!

Don't let a sick society make you sick.

DON'T!

Evangelos Bochatziar

Speech and Language Therapist, Autism Specialist, Writer