What are three things a kid on the autism spectrum would like everyone to know? We asked Monica Conti, director of the Innovative Services for Autism of the Holy Family Foundation, on the eve of the Day dedicated to Autism Awareness on 2 April.
«I’m not sick, I’m not “affected” by autism. The first thing seems to me this. I see, hear, perceive things differently: come and get to know my world, let’s get closer », she replied. The second thing to reiterate is that “I’m not capricious and I’m not lazy, sometimes maybe I don’t understand how you ask me some things, try asking me in a different way”. The real “myth” to dispel, however, is that “it’s not true that I don’t like being with others, but sometimes there are too many things happening at the same time, I don’t understand them and this disturbs me”. No more kids in bubbles then? “Yes, no more bubbles.”
Holy Family Foundation recounts its daily commitment alongside children and young people with autism spectrum disorders and their families. From Blu Home, four domotic educational apartments for autism, to the path for siblings, to the very recent research on food selectivity. «The more we talk, the more we know, the false myths have finally been debunked… but the point is that in addition to talking, we need to do things. It is always important to keep talking about it but right now it seems important to me to focus more attention on daily life, the normality of autistic people, for example the part relating to living, moving away from one’s nucleus of origin, especially for people which have more complex levels of functioning. We need to face the reality of inclusion, from school to sport to leisure, topics that do not yet have a real feasibility for people with more complex functioning”, explained Dr. Conti.
Watch the live on Instagram here.