Hello. My name is James. And I am writing this blog to tell you about my brother’s condition. My brother, Justin, has autism. He is a 5 year old kid, and I have seen him struggle with the condition every day; struggle to make friends, to understand what’s goes on around him. This stresses me out. I am 16, and I want to do something to help him.
My parents got Justin enrolled in a school which specializes in taking care of kids with special needs. The school has teachers who are experts in taking care of children with disabilities. They have different programs and activities. One such activity that really caught my attention was the DIR (Developmental, Individual-differences, relationship-based) treatment model, which is also known as the Floortime therapy approach. I think that Floortime therapy is more of a strategy that uses emotionally meaningful learning activities that help in establishing developmental abilities.
The goal of the Floortime therapy approach is to build a basis for healthy development, rather than just working on the issues at the surface level. The activities are broken down into milestones, and are compared between normally developed children, and children with development delays. The milestones are covered from early stages of development, and continues until the early adolescence years. This careful nurturing helps autistic children develop a sense of belonging with the world around them, and communicate effectively with other people.
Justin’s school uses this strategy to help its students, and according to them, their attempts have been successful so far. I really hope that they will be able to help Justin, and give him the same attention, love and care that we give at home.
I have started studying about autism, and how it affects people. I have also learned that a surprising number of people are not aware about what autism is. People are even afraid of it, and vilify those who suffer from autism by sometimes choosing to sequester them, rather than try and help them. Some even try and spread rumors about this condition, and choose to spread lies about how autism works, rather than teach people the truth.
I’d like people to know that autism is not a curse. Autistic children are not “disabled”. Their brain just works a bit differently. Floortime therapy can really help them, and a little patience is all it takes to make their life great.
Special Needs School NYC 