Pascale Comte, her fight for her autistic son

Testimony: my fight for my son Eliott

“At the beginning, we don’t want to believe it, we convince ourselves that our child is just a little late, we tell ourselves that each toddler grows at his own pace, that there is no point in worrying… But the reality catches up with us quickly. Although I always knew, perhaps unconsciously, that something was wrong, it was only around the age of 2, when Eliott went to a daycare center, that the first fears really arose. My little boy didn’t speak at all, he was in the throes of uncontrollable temper tantrums. He could have incomprehensible obsessions with the light, the washing machine …

“The shrink retorts me that it is my fault if my son is autistic”

The psychologist at the drop-in center then told us that she suspected autistic disorders in our child. Shock. She advises us to do a diagnostic assessment in a specialized center. But this can only be prescribed by a doctor. We therefore go to a CMP (medico-psychological center). But there, surprise, the doctor considers that Eliott has no problem and recommends weekly sessions with a child psychiatrist. These consultations are a failure. I have the impression that they are intended simply to make me feel guilty and not to listen to my son. The child psychiatrist makes me understand in summary that if my son has seizures, it’s my fault because I had a baby blues after his birth, and he ignores the father. Elliot continues to have a lot of fits, sometimes violent, I don’t know what to do to help him. At the beginning of 2012, the child psychiatrist announced to us that she finally suspected PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorders) on the cognitive, social, emotional, intellectual, sensory and language acquisition levels. We make an appointment in a Parisian hospital to have a more precise diagnosis of Eliott’s disability. 9 months later, in June 2012, my son was received in this specialized service dedicated to autism, he underwent an intensive evaluation for three weeks. The green falls at the end of the balance sheet: the report mentions disorders bordering on mental retardation. I am stunned. I check with psychologists who tell me that this test does not hold water because my son speaks very little and that we cannot assess the IQ of a child who does not yet know how to express himself.

“The behavioral method is bearing fruit, Eliott is progressing …”

At the start of the school year, against all odds, Eliott enters kindergarten like the other children, it is not clean, but the school principal accepts it. Out of the question for me to give up, since the health professionals do not help me, I will try to find solutions on my own. I get information on the internet, by buying books, by contacting associations … I discovered that in France specialists favor the psychoanalytic approach to treat autism, while in most other countries, it is behavioral methods which are followed and… which have proved their worth. For the followers of the psychoanalytic method, autism has only one psychological origin, it is a psychosis caused directly by the mother. I understand better the sessions with the child psychiatrist where I was severely judged. Today, Elliot is followed by a psychologist, he has weekly appointments with a speech therapist, a psychomotor therapist, a child psychiatrist and a home educator.

“There are times when I feel like I have a normal child, and there are times that remind you that autism is here”

My son has improved a lot, he can read and write, he speaks better, but the crises are still there. At school, a school life assistant (AVS) accompanies him 12 hours a week since entering kindergarten. Eliott is at CP today and I feel things are starting to get complicated for him. He doesn’t have a single friend. He learned that he had a disability and that this disability was called autism. Children are cruel to each other, and “autistic” is a very common insult in playgrounds. Last Christmas when I asked him what he wanted as a gift, he replied: “no longer be autistic”. It broke my heart. After this long obstacle course, which is probably not over, I wanted to help parents in difficulty. Because it must be recognized that the system often puts us in the wheels. 

“Ninoo” gives a positive approach to autism

Alexandra Rosenfeld, former Miss France supports Ninoo

I created in March 2013 because I did not find myself in any existing association. The idea of ​​Ninoo is to give a positive image of autism. My association wants to differentiate itself by offering practical services to help families in their daily life. For example, we have set up workshops for children and their parents: music, visual arts, pastries … Thanks to social networks, I was able to contact many artists who responded “present” to support the association. In 2015, World Autism Awareness Day, we tried to bring together as many people as possible by organizing the HAPPY BLUE DAY. Blue is the color of autism. Each one made a blue heart by crochet or knitting and all this love symbolized by hearts will be offered on April 2, 2015 to passers-by in an emblematic place of Paris: the Place du Palais Royal. I hope this initiative will help raise awareness of this handicap. ”

Ninoo’s ambassadors