Galina Omarova, head of the project “Social integration of children with autism”, spoke about the problems of autistic children in our city.
The situation with the sister of Natalia Vodianova stirred up the Internet with a wave of indignation. As a reminder, on August 11, 27-year-old Oksana, suffering from autism, walked into a summer cafe in Nizhny Novgorod, from where the staff of the institution rudely expelled the girl, since, in their opinion, she scares off visitors.
And how is it for people with such a developmental peculiarity in Yaroslavl? We asked Galina Omarova, the head of the project “Social integration of children with autism,” about this, who is personally familiar with the problem of autistic children, since a few years ago such a diagnosis was made to her own daughter.
“Parents of autistic children in Yaroslavl are faced with difficulties of a very different plan: this is the inability to get adequate help from specialists, and fear for the future of their child, since there are no special educational institutions in the city where autistic children could study, and society’s rejection, – says Galina. – I myself have repeatedly encountered misunderstanding and rejection of my daughter, although she is a very rare variant of autism – a sweet, calm, benevolent girl, not prone to destructive behavior. But, for example, a boy comes up to her on the set and tries to get to know her. I told him: “She cannot speak, but she understands everything.” The boy, smiling, invites her to climb the hill, but then his mother flies up, grabs the boy by the hand and drags him out of the park. And there are very, very many such situations, and the older the child becomes, the more noticeable is his strangeness, dissimilarity, clumsiness – and the more often sidelong glances fly in the back, condemning whispers are “overpowered” (yes, that’s right!), And mocking laughter of other children, and advice: “Yes,” shut up “your child already.” In a word, what is not there …
Meanwhile, our children are learning, they are selectively gifted. But someone needs to teach them everything. Both doctors and pedagogues-defectologists should work with autists, and in Yaroslavl, many parents are afraid to go somewhere with their kids, – Galina Omarova shares her concerns. “We are trying to do this in our center, however, to help most of the guys, we need to finance such projects.”
Galina Omarova turned out to be better prepared than other parents for the problems associated with raising an autistic child, because she is a psychiatrist by education. She managed to help not only her daughter, but also many parents in Yaroslavl. Galina is convinced that society would treat autists differently if it knew better about this developmental disorder.
What are the problems of such a child, and then of an adult? What caused their behavior?
“The main problems are the violation of social communication,” explains Galina Omarova. – Difficulties of verbal (verbal) and non-verbal communication, as well as the predominance of stereotyped, monotonous behavior. Unfortunately, in recent years, the number of children born with this disorder has been steadily growing. We are already talking about a whole group of disorders with similar manifestations – autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In different countries, the figures are called 1 per 88 children with ASD, they say about 1,5-2% of schoolchildren who are diagnosed with similar problems.
Of course, the violation of social communication and communication problems cannot but lead to a host of difficulties in the daily life of such a child and the family raising him. The baby often lacks a sense of danger, he does not understand why it is impossible to play with a cactus or walk on the roadway. More than 70% of children never begin to use words, so it is very difficult for them to understand what adults want from them, and it is even more difficult to convey their feelings to us. At the same time, one must understand that anxiety and anxiety, constant expectation of something bad, misunderstanding of the environment, various fears accompany them all their lives and leave an imprint on their behavior. What is given to a normal child easily, without hesitation – speech, play, study, communication … for an autistic person and his family – a thorny path, on which there are more obstacles than helpers.
Shrill screams, self-harm, disobedience and refusal to obey the demand, the desire to run away and hide, etc. – this is not a complete list of the destructive behavior of the autistic, and the lion’s share of this list is a reaction to stress and the inability to satisfy their needs right now. Waiting is generally very difficult for a person with autism. Some authors write that having to wait a few minutes causes them such suffering that it can be compared to physical pain. Now imagine a child like that in a store … on public transport … on a train … in an unfamiliar place … even in a circus. Often, even parents cannot predict what and when will cause an inadequate, from the point of view of society, reaction, so the life of a family turns into a walk through a minefield, and often the family simply closes itself within the confines of an apartment, yard, or dacha. Many families cannot afford to visit, socialize with friends, or attend mass celebrations. Going to the playground with your child turns into torture.
I think it’s good that the story with Oksana Vodianova has acquired such a wide public response – we, parents raising not only autists, but also other children with disabilities, really need an understanding of society and a friendly attitude towards our children, then we have stress and they will have less, and therefore, destructive behavior too. “