School built with the aim of helping autistic children

School built with the aim of helping autistic children

By Bambang Tiong

YOGYAKARTA (JP): So far there has been no cure found for
autism, a brain disorder which causes disruption to the
development of a child's communication and interaction abilities,
and affects behavior and emotions.

It is important, therefore, to understand this problem when
children are at an early age. The best approach is to stimulate
the patients when they are still very young, ideally between the
ages of two and five years old.

The symptoms of autism can in fact be detected when children
are below three years old. The most conspicuous symptom is the
lack of eye contact and response to the mother or anyone who is
near them. The symptoms will be more obvious as time goes by.
Autistic children over three years old may show a slow
development of speech, a lack of hand movements such as waving,
laughing or crying without any reason, licking things or being
occupied with playing with the fingers for hours.

Special schools are needed for children with autism.
Unfortunately there are only a few such schools in Indonesia. One
of them, Fajar Nugroho, is located at Senturan, Caturtunggal,
Sleman, Yogyakarta. It was established in 1997 by Muhammad Agus
Hanafi, 43, whose son suffers from autism.

"In the beginning, I was confused because not a single school
was able to help my autistic child. I was sure my child wasn't
the only child suffering from autism. I was then determined to
help my child and those other autistic children so that they
could get the necessary guidance," he said.

The school applies the behavior method or what is known in
medical terms as applied behavioral analysis.

In order to achieve maximum success, the school, which
currently has 14 students between the ages of seven and 14 years
old, practices individual accompaniment, meaning every child is
accompanied by one teacher.

According to Agus, this individual accompaniment is aimed at
tying strong emotional ties between the teacher and the patient
so that the child becomes more willing to communicate. In
addition, it is easier to monitor the child's progress in detail.

Meanwhile, to avoid developing a dependence on the teacher, a
rotating system is applied whereby the student has a new teacher
every three months.

"The child must always be monitored to ensure they know how to
speak, to eat, to maintain their health including the knowing the
right way to take a bath, and the proper ways of interacting and
associating," explained Agus.

Despite the many handicaps of autistic children, some of them
have extraordinary abilities to record. For example, Ausie
Novarga, 13, was taken by Agus to look at the scenery at the ring
road crossing of North Yogyakarta for 15 minutes. When the child
got home an hour later, he was told to make a drawing of what he
had seen. The result was amazing.

In addition to having a strong memory, an autistic patient,
according to a Dutch consultant at the school Fred Vrugteveen,
can also have the sixth sense.

"Well, sometimes they have supernatural power like guessing
precisely the birthday of someone they see," explained Fred.

Autism is not exactly a modern illness but it can not be
called an ancient illness either because it was not until in 1940
that it was discovered by Dr. Leo Kanner. Autism is not merely a
functional disturbance but an organic disturbance in the
development of the brain's amigdala (central response) system and
of the hypocampus (where memories are stored).

There are two causes. Firstly a child can develop autism
genetically and secondly through a viral infection such as
Toxoplasmosis, Cytomegalo, Ruble or Herpes. It can also be caused
by an oxygen shortage, or if a mother consumes or inhales a
polluting substance which poisons the fetus in the early stages
of pregnancy.

Vrugteveen said that at the moment the number of autistic
children has already reached 4 patients per 10,000 children and
those in the diagnostic stage have reached 20 per 10,000
children.

They badly need continual accompaniment and treatment
involving a number of experts including psychiatrists,
psychologists, physiotherapists, gastroenterologists (experts in
digestion), neurologists, experts in microbiology and several
educators, beside the parents themselves.

Vrugteveen said that autistic patients have normal sex lives:
they experience puberty like any other normal person as well as
attraction to their opposite sex, but it's very difficult for
them to get married if the disorder is not overcome.

"Considering that an autistic patient is so extremely
individual that he doesn't want to understand other people's
desires, and that they become bored so easily, it is indeed very
difficult for them to get married," said Fred.

Both Fred and Muhammad admit, so far there hasn't been any
experts to thoroughly investigate in detail the sexual lives of
autistic patients.

"The investigation of the sexual lives of autistic patients is
actually extremely necessary to conduct but nobody has yet
conducted it," said Fred.