Learning - the Journey is the Process

In a seminal article in the Harvard Business Review, Peter Drucker wrote about the different ways individuals learn. Not just learning in structured environment like a school, but also learning in a professional and social environment. Some are readers, others learn when they discuss, talk or listen.

Sometimes I wonder how the autistic children learn. What is the best way to get across life skills and other education, including formal education, across to them. That is truly one of the major exploration areas in the search for therapy and treatment of autism.

Based on our experience with Adi, learning for autistic children is hard but not impossible. It requires patience, lot of initiative on behalf of parents and lot of practice and rework. Be prepared for a journey with stops, delays, frustration but also some wonderful happy surprises !  In some ways, the journey is the process. And sometimes, it takes a lot to sustain the spirits - for progress is incremental and slow. There are no magic pills here.

And it depends as much on the instructor as anyone else.In the initial stage, when he was 3 and diagnosed with severe autism, we were very lucky to have a young, enthusiastic lady as his home therapist -  who had the basic command of ABA and was also a teaching aide in his early intervention program and was also working towards her Masters degree in Special ED. She loved Adi and created a wonderful program for him - filled with lots of fun, play, trampoline, treats and songs and through these media - learning. Among early successes - learning to point, speaking his own name, calling us out as Ma and Baba, learning to eat at the table and learning his home phone number. Learning to wash hands, do potty in the bathroom(from the kids training potty) and eat with spoon and fork. It required significant patience, he would cry, yell, have repeated breakdowns - but she persevered. Later I would realize - this was her innovative way of combining ABA with Playtime and many other ways of therapy. And slowly the rays of the sun started to peek through the clouds. An early start wth the right therapist is therefore critical. We had about 10 hours of home therapy  per week during that initial period on top of full day early intervention program in school. It was invaluable - the home therapy focused on development of language and social skills. 

One other thing we learned - learning for him is not a continuing ramp up. There are periods of plateaus and there is regression if the follow up is not maintained. We evidenced real regression during the summer vacation months and from then on, have always requested for extended year programs where ABA practices are continued.

Sometimes, specific therapies and interventions were required to achieve specific objectives. Adi initially had serious issues with food - he would not eat most things and everything that he would eat had to be mashed so that he could swallow. For several months, I took him to a private therapy where they basically taught him how to chew and eat. My wife gave him specific foods like vegetables and other chewy items like pasta etc. It took time - but soon his food options had started to increase.  The therapist used to place the food right near the molars and physically, gently prompt movement of the jaws.

An example of an undesirable behavior was constant raiding of the refrigerator in search of goodies. At substantial cost, we did several months of private therapy at specific intervals to take care of this undesirable behavior. The way - replace an undesirable behavior with a liked desirable behavior.

As I mentioned above, the journey is often the process. And it pays to be alert as much as possible during the journey. During the early intervention program, we quickly learned that Adi loved music. Specially the Hindi Movie catchy dance music videos. So we started creating a library for him and put it into the iPad and iPhone. It has proved to be a real life saver on numerous occasions - where we were free to engage in social conversations and other activities like shopping while he busied himself with his songs. And that in turn, made him like the iPad immensely. Here was something he could relate to - his friend, somewhat with whom he could spend time. Now when we thinks of ice cream - he does not raid the freezer (for most of the time), he goes to google>types in ice cream> Images. He loves water - so will check out music videos involving rain and be happy seeing people getting drenched. And will remember the words swimming, water, rain - for they help him to visualize what he likes. And we, in turn, realize that here is something that we were desperately looking for - a way for him to spend time when not in a educational or learning environment, almost like with a friend who understands his need. And today, when I see him play Temple Run 2 and run up scores in excess of 50000, I know how fast his mind is working to achieve that. So here is what we learned - if he likes something which is not destructive, use that like to further learning objectives. Teach him how to operate an iPad to see videos of water, pictures of ice cream and so on. He will lap it up. He loves water - encourage him to take up swimming starting with treading water. 

And never take anything for granted. Don't generalize. Adi hates it if a drop of water lands on his dress - but the same boy just loves jumping into the pool or the lake or the sea and will spend hours wetting his whole body, pants and so on. Why? I don't know completely - maybe it is because he does not like his dress to get wet. But it is not hydrophobia in any way as I have indicated his total love for water. And after we practiced and practiced long enough, the same love for water translated to an acquired skill for swimming in deep water and staying afloat on his back !