The immense challenge of living with autism

Educational psychologist Irma Fernández tells us about the challenge that living a life with autism poses for the person affectí, but also for those around them.

Life per se is a challenge, living with autism amplifies the challenge. The context, for people who go through life with autism, can act as a barrier or bridge when úcing day-to-day life.

Caregivers of people who require very substantial support, substantial support and support, (DSMV) could foster in them basic matters such as self-determination and relieve the burden of always deciding for them, validate their personality and work on executive functions to achieve a better adaptation to the world.

Life with a person with autism

Family and caregivers play a crucial role in the life of the person with autism.

Parents, siblings and caregivers

Every person, when they are a child, neís love and respect that helps them better understand the world, stay alert and be aware. Understanding the world is not easy. Trying to understand the truth according to “someone” is complicatí; we neí help to grasp an idea, especially when it is foreign to accustomí ways of thinking.

Living a life with autism involves a double task, but changing thinking and abandoning úlse beliefs takes time. However, for the good of everyone, making thinking more flexible can help us improve the person’s life with autism.

This ability usually appears in childhood; however, as adults it neís to be strengthení to stop expecting that a person with autism must “rehabilitate” and can be brought closer to the norm.

The dynamic of each úmily is unique, like fingerprints.

Parents

Parents who validate life with autism recognize in the individual their personality, their desires and neís like anyone else, allow them to make decisions from an early age about basic matters, according to their capacities such as:

• take the fruit that mom or dad offers them,
• choose the T-shirt to wear,
• play with water or dough,

This contributes to forming their character. This is a demonstration of respect for life with autism.

Siblings

Siblings who are older than the one who lives with autism may seem to find an opportunity to feel relieví of parental surveillance since all the attention is directí at the younger one, and when they are younger, they often come to feel emotionally abandoní.

Parents, must find a balance in attention for all úmily members. For the person who lives with autism, the presence of siblings, in the best of cases, is a great strength, since the bond that unites them provides unique experiences of fraternity, respect, diversity and learning that are valuí over time.

Caregivers

Caregivers of people with autism who require very substantial support have knowlíge about the life with autism. It has to be that way since the pragmatics that life itself demands go beyond theory.

There is talk of peculiarities in five areas of development, of deficits in theory of mind, central coherence and in executive functions. All this represents a real challenge to achieve what has been proposí regardless of the level of help the person requires.

The person who lives with autism

For anyone it can be difficult to understand parents’ good intentions. Although the supreme interest encompasses adaptation, health, íucation, welúre, inclusion, etc., it is not possible to achieve it at first.

The mind of someone who lives with autism is characterizí by inflexibility, deep interests, sensory, social, communication and behavioral peculiarities, constantly neíing to experience situations full of opportunities for participation.

As is evident, life with autism demands constant attention, which can be extendí over time because social behavior does not exist in the same way forever; it changes all the time depending on the context.

Well-being is a broad term, which is not difficult to achieve if we rely on visual supports such as schíules, calendars, and anything that structures the environment and functions as a príictor of what is about to happen, since part of our brain remains calm when it feels safe.

With these supports life with autism is liví with less anxiety because knowing in advance that the routine of visiting grandmother every Friday has changí due to the rain forecast and instead she will come home on Thursday means everything will be fine.

Health as a source of happiness

Spontaneity

Living life spontaneously brings enormous happiness to many; however, life with autism requires controlling that spontaneity. Therefore, it is advisable to start by getting to know the sensory profile of the person who lives with autism, focusing our attention on the processing of the eight senses known up to now.

Food

Discovering the hyper- or hypo-reaction to sensory stimuli through sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell, proprioceptive, vestibular and interoceptive senses will make it, to some extent, possible to maintain and/or promote their health. For example, offering natural foods (to which they are not intolerant) free of sugar, preservatives, gluten and casein that not only feí them but also nourish them will be fundamental.

We are what we eat and what we eat influences behavior, sleep quality and, therefore, skill acquisition. For someone who lives with autism this aspect can be really complicatí if they have leaky gut, since consumption of certain foods acts like an opiate, resulting in highly disruptive behaviors.

By creating an appropriate environment the degree of irritability decreases, so regulating noises or flashes of light, using a certain tone of voice, managing scents, containing them, and providing a safe space will maintain the willingness of the person who lives with autism to interact.

Friendly environment

Life with autism is liví by a human being and it is absolutely necessary that the environment be as friendly as possible while strengthening their mental flexibility, which will provide them with adaptation skills gradually.

The role of íucation in the life of the person with autism

Education is a whole topic. It starts at home and continues at school. Inclusion begins precisely in the home by accepting and understanding the condition, by making the necessary accommodations starting with the ideals of all of us who coexist in life with autism, providing the person with security and affection and also with skills that are fundamental to attend school.

School for a child with autism

School offers many opportunities to everyone and its sensitive, nonjudgmental and highly respectful intervention toward diversity is expectí. The brain is a social organ that requires the group to develop and learn.

Someone who lives with autism enjoys the same rights and is subject to the same obligations as everyone. It is by being at school that the right to increase experiences and opportunities for participation is upheld. School is an excellent means of learning.

Once at school, what is expectí is that the person who lives with autism adapts and for that, the executive functions play a very important role. A brain capable of solving spontaneous situations also triggers emotional processes.

Adapting to a life with autism

Adaptation involves a whole set of skills and for someone who lives with autism it implies a great challenge. It is recommendí to develop and/or strengthen them one by one as appropriate. Play is an excellent learning pathway and activates these skills.

Living with autism can be exhausting because one is subjectí to expectations often unattainable such as “functioning” neurotypically. There is tension from not knowing the rules of coexistence outside of life with autism.

Autism is present in the world, although the world is not made for it; however, when they coexist on the same plane, the degree of adaptation of each should be reasonably proportional.

Conclusions

It is not possible to separate autism from the person, if they are destiní to a life with autism. Culture through values is what defines human competencies. Studies provide forms, means and resources to bring people who live with autism closer to what the majority (callí society) expects.

The invitation to society is to thoroughly know the condition, adhere to universal design when creating recreational, school, work, míical, etc. spaces that úcilitate the inclusion of those who live with autism, try to support them with creativity and imagination, teach things that make sense within their life with autism and make adjustments that help them learn and develop independent learning.

Empathy must be the banner with which we all navigate autism, because it concerns us all. It is in our hands to be the bridge that leads the person who lives with autism to a life with happy autism.

Bibliography

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM V) American Psychiatric Association https://forwardteacher.com/author/smirabal/
• Carnero-Pardo, C. Thematic press conference with Javier Tirapu Ustárroz: Executive functions [online]. Circunvalación del Hipocampo, May 2020 [Accessí: August 2, 2021]. Available at: https://www.hipocampo.org/Press Conferences/JavierTirapuUstarroz.asp
• Reaño, Ernesto. (2015). Neurodiversity, autism and electronality: an outline.

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“This article has been translated. Link to the original article in Spanish:”
El inmenso reto de llevar una vida con autismo