On various social platforms, we often see popular science information about autistic children, but rarely see the true situation of "older autistic and autistic youth".
Today we will talk about the "adult difficulties" that adult autism has to face, and what kind of help and support parents should provide to children with autism so that their children can live a relaxed life as adults.
01 Detailed explanation of the reasons for the "adult dilemma" of autism
For autistic parents, raising an autistic child will face new problems and new anxiety every day. Moreover, as the children grow up, parents can enjoy life after their children in ordinary families live independently, but autistic parents still find it difficult to remove the "burden".
case
Ms. Li’s son Yang Yang is 20 years old this year, but until now, she still takes care of her daily life. My son cannot live without people. Ms. Li cannot go out to work. She eats minimum living allowance at home and often has to accept help from her old mother. This makes Ms. Li wipe her tears when she thinks about it. "I dare not even think about what the child will do when I am gone." [1]
In the above case, the problems faced by Ms. Li and her son Yang Yang are by no means isolated cases, but are a microcosm of most autistic families. What exactly is the reason for
? It has caused many older autistics to face difficulties such as "nowhere to go", "no things to do", and "no work to do". What makes autistic parents fall into the worry of their children's "old and nowhere to rely on"?
Autism who enters adults will face the problem of finding a job like ordinary people. However, according to a data reported by Zhuhai Special Administrative Region News: "According to incomplete statistics, about 80% of autistic adults in the country are unemployed." [2]
Through relevant surveys, it was found that most autistic people do not have special employment training in the areas where most autistic people are located. Even if some adults with autism have the ability to work, they lack corresponding employment policies, employment environments, employment platforms and other support systems [3]. For example:
does not currently have a sound employment security system for autism, and it is difficult for adult autistic patients to survive with quality and dignity; the public's attention is insufficient and the lack of reporting, popularization and publicity of autism-related knowledge has led to many companies not understanding the behavior of autistic patients and are unwilling to hire them. The reasons above
make autistic parents have no choice but to "keep" older autism at home, or even lock them at home.
The communication skills, social communication skills, etc. that most elderly autistics have finally developed in childhood may be degraded because their activity trajectory can only be limited to a narrow space, resulting in skills not being intensively trained, making the symptoms of autism more serious.
02 How to help older autism live better?
The dilemma of adult autism comes more from the general environment. If we want to change the overall environment, according to the current situation, our country still has a lot of ways to go.
But parents should not be discouraged. Since the overall environment cannot be changed for the time being, then we parents can try to change the "small environment", that is, teach the relevant skills of autistic children in advance so that after entering the adulthood, autistic children will not have too difficult life.
1 Let children learn to regulate emotions
learn to regulate emotions, and is one of the symbols of a qualified adult. In the adult world, there will be various emotions. For autism, if you do not learn to regulate your emotions, it will lead to problematic behaviors, such as beating people, throwing things, etc.
So how should parents help star children learn to regulate their emotions? It is recommended to start from these two points. First, when emotions suddenly come, teach your child to describe his emotions. For example, parents can ask their children: "How are you feeling now?" "Are you angry?" "Why are you angry?" Children must know how to express their emotional state in order to get help and solve the problem.
The second point is to learn to vent your emotions reasonably.When children have bad emotions, parents should let their children know that "emotions are like water, but it is better to be distracted than blockages". They can release bad emotions in a timely manner. They can cry or directly vent their emotions through exercise methods such as playing ball, running, cycling, etc. In short, it is necessary to let the child understand that if he has emotions, he should solve it in time and not accumulate negative emotions in his heart.
2 Develop a good habit
When autism is still young, help them develop a good habit, which can be sleeping and getting up early on time, or insisting on reading, exercising, etc. When autism becomes an adult, good habits can not only bring happiness to their lives and relieve stress, but also help them learn to manage their own behavior norms [4].
3 Cultivate social communication skills
In the adult world, you must deal with people. If parents can cultivate their children's good social interaction skills in advance and get along with others in childhood, including learning to know themselves, developing independent behaviors, and handling interpersonal relationships, it can help them adapt to adult life and become more likely to integrate into the social life environment.
4 Improve self-care ability
After growing up with autism, the first problem faced is living independently. The prerequisite for learning to live independently is to have the ability to take care of yourself.
The ability to take care of yourself in life is a necessary ability for children to enter society. It not only includes dressing, washing, eating, etc., but also doing housework and learning to cook.
How to improve the ability to take care of autism in life is recommended that parents can conduct "demonstration teaching", that is, parents demonstrate, and let their children imitate. Even for autism in older and adults, demonstration teaching methods (video demonstrations) are also applicable. Through the learning of multiple video demonstrations, autism can also be improved to improve communication skills, obtain professional skills, etc.
03 said that in the end
has nowhere to go, nothing to do, no work to do, and even no support for old age. These are the difficulties that older autistic patients will face at present or in the future. How to solve these problems in
? In addition to the need for autistic parents to help autistic children learn certain coping skills as early as possible, government departments also need to establish and improve the autistic employment security system as soon as possible, and provide them with certain employment opportunities and related employment training and professional guidance, so that more patients can support themselves and return to society. Only in this way can the worries of autistic families be solved from the source.
Reference materials:
[1] Qingdao Daily and Qing Daily Network reporter. Expectations of "adult autistic patients" [N]. Qingdao Daily, 2014-05-28(005).
[2] Sun Guanghui, Tang Shuang, Chen Lin, Guo Rongli. Care for you from the Star: Research on the welfare security issues of autistic children [J]. Economic Research Guide, 2017(29):106-107.
[3] Dilemma of autistic families and the construction of social support system——Survey based on Shanghai
[4] Du Qiaoxin, Liang Wei. Evidence-based intervention methods for autism in older and adults [J]. Chinese Journal of Hearing and Language Rehabilitation Science, 2019, 17(01): 74-76.
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