Over 600 people, mainly psychologists and educators, but also parents of people with autism spectrum disorders, met on May 17 at the SYNAPSIS Foundation conference entitled People with Asperger Syndrome – a world of emotions. Prof. Tony Attwood.
– Problems experienced by people with Asperger’s syndrome and highly functioning people with autism require special dissemination in the social consciousness. The vast majority of “neurotypical” people in our country do not realize how severe, painful and emotionally negative effects are their daily contacts with their peers, and often with other people from the environment – we can read in the letter of the President of the SYNAPSIS Foundation, Michał Wroniszewski , to the participants of the conference “People with Asperger Syndrome – the world of emotions”.
During the Saturday meeting, Tony Attwood discussed topics related to dealing with anxiety, sadness and anger, as well as strategies for dealing with intimidation and violence against people on the autism spectrum.
Daily experiences of people with Asperger Syndrome and their parents show that, unfortunately, many teachers do not know what may be going on in the “second life” of a class or other peer group. The professor believes that peers have the greatest influence on other children and that they are the best to intervene in a situation of violence towards their colleagues. Therefore, it is worth solving the problem of violence at school by teaching children how to behave in such situations, showing that persecuting others “is not cool, is not funny and is unacceptable. An example of a school violence prevention program for students with Asperger Syndrome is the one implemented by Carol Gray (http://www.thegraycenter.org/).
When asked about the most effective way to change society’s awareness of autism, a guest of the SYNAPSIS Foundation pointed to television – e.g. series and documentaries. According to Professor Attwood, this is a very good way to reach people who don’t know anything about autism. Suddenly people realize that a person with Asperger’s or autism could be their neighbor, coworker, schoolmate, family member, Attwood said. His books have been translated into 28 languages, including Polish.
– We are glad that such a unique event – Conference with the participation of Prof. Tony Attwood is held in the year of the 25th anniversary of the SYNAPSIS Foundation. We hope that the knowledge and experience provided during the Conference will give us all participants an impulse and inspiration to act for changes in Polish schools, universities, workplaces and other environments important for people with ASD – says President Wroniszewski.
During the conference, Dr. Agnieszka Rynkiewicz also presented a project devoted to the use of new technologies in the process of preparing children for social inclusion.
Photo Patrycja Mic / SYNAPSIS Foundation.