AUTISM
MESSAGE FROM A SPEECH THERAPIST FOR SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN
With the incidence of Autism having increased by 300% and information coming out about Indigo Children, Psychic Children, Crystal Children, etc., it is clear that we need to pay attention, to what their needs are and how we can support them.
My sense is children are more extremely evolved and sensitive. They are highly sensitive not only to sound, light (may see in the dark), touch, taste, but also to energy fields. They can sense the energy fields of individuals, large groups of people, the electromagnetic fields generated by the electricity in our buildings and the energy of humanity's collective consciousness, which unfortunately more times than not tends to be fear based.
The Kogi tribe in the Amazon has said there is a more evolved way of communicating than the way we do speech. This is a non-verbal telepathic communication of thought and feeling. From what mothers have told me about their children's interactions with young siblings, they seem to be communicating telepathically, without words.
In trying to teach them to talk, sometimes it feels that I am dragging them down to communicate in a manner for which they were not designed. They will eventually learn speech, but it will be later than other children and it is important that we learn the natural way of communicating with them until they are ready to speak.
Their difficulties in social interaction with others may be related to the experience of not having their natural communication received and responded to by others. Obviously, as parents, therapists and teachers, we will have to develop skills of telepathic communication to be able to interact with and support them.
They appear to be advanced visually and symbolically, learning letters and numbers at a much younger age. Non-verbal methods of communication, such as picture exchange communication and gestures are very important.
These visual and symbolic skills seem to be the key. This is the reason Onionhead works so well. They can completely identify with the character. He introduces them to sensibility, sentimentality, sense of responsibility and common sense. Through identifying with Onionhead the world we live in becomes understandable and accessible to them.
Testimonial: "I have found Onionhead to be an endearing character who children respond to well. They participate in the activities, while learning to understand and communicate their feelings. This functions on several levels. At a nonverbal level, Onionhead's expressive gestures and facial expressions mirror the feeling states that children experience in themselves and pick up from the people around them. The activities give them the opportunity to identify and express these nonverbal aspects of language which is an important part of communication that is frequently overlooked.
The activities go on to build a vocabulary for identifying and labeling the many feelings that all children experience both within themselves and around them. I have been comfortable teaching only the basic emotions - 'happy, sad, mad', but found that even young children of 3 and 4 were familiar with a much larger range of emotions than I had been focusing on. The activities then provide the opportunity to fully express their feelings, to relate these feelings to the experiences from which they arise, to understand that feelings change and how they can begin to do so. This develops both pragmatic and syntactic language skills at the same time as developing emotional intelligence.
I have found this to be a powerful tool for teaching these important skills to preschool children with difficulties in the area of speech and language and can see the potential for using this with children of all ages and the adults with whom they interact."
Ariella Shira Lewis
Speech and Language Pathologist
Preschool Speech and Language Program
