2022 is the first year Sasa has been exposed to piano and the fourth year he has been involved in autism.
After a year, this 4-year-old boy from Mianyang, Sichuan Province has not changed much in his life. The sun is still rising and setting. The tireless mother and the piano that seems to never be tired of playing every day.
Starting from the day her son was diagnosed with autism, Li Menglan was forced to start a difficult mode in her life. Illustrations, clothing design, part-time "group leader"... Faced with the pressure of life, she is like a " perpetual motion machine ", constantly running around. "I am his lifelong support, and I hope he can have his own future with talent." Although the journey is difficult, life is always moving forward. Li Menglan said that everyone calls his son a genius, "But autism is not a genius disease, I hope everyone will not over-beautify it."
4-year-old autistic boy Sasa is playing the piano
" absolute sound "
2021, Sasa sat in front of the piano and quickly played a complete piece based on the notes melody he heard a few minutes ago. After the video was released, netizens called him a genius with "absolute sound". That year, Sasa became a hot search.
In 2022, Sasa once again attracted social attention with his video of playing the piano with the "absolute sound". After the second hot search, Sasa's mother Li Menglan was both happy and "tough" in the face of the endless praise from the outside world.
"Compared with the so-called piano genius, I hope everyone can know that he is an autistic patient, and I hope more people can understand this group." Li Menglan said.
Sasa was diagnosed with a high-risk autism tendency when he was 1 and a half years old. "He has been different from ordinary children since he was a child. He can't play with toys and cannot look at people. He seems to be not interested in anything." Li Menglan recalled to the reporter of New Yellow River that until one time, she took Sasa to pass by a musical instrument store in a shopping mall. The grand piano in the store quickly rushed into Sasa's sight. Later, whenever I passed by, Sasa would look at the piano and even wanted to touch the piano several times.
Photo by Sasa and Li Menglan
Watching his son "being possessed". When he was 2 years old, Li Menglan bought him an electronic piano . It was not until later that she realized that it was a seed she planted in her son's world.
Sasa showed a different passion for music. From the initial reading of the electronic piano score a few times, you can play the complete melody, and later, Li Menglan hummed a few songs casually, Sasa seemed to have remembered the position of the keys and could often play them. The talent that children show in the trivialities of life is repeatedly embodied and hits Li Menglan.
"For familiar songs, he can even play them blindly, with an accuracy rate of nearly 100%. " said Li Menglan.
Sasa shows extraordinary musical talent
isolate from the world
However, putting aside musical talent, Sasa, like other autistic patients, lives are isolated from the world.
"The typical manifestation is developmental delay, rigid behavior, obsessed with one's own world, and unwilling to contact the outside world." Li Menglan said that his son's autism tendency was first revealed when he was 8 months old.
At that time, Sasa had already taken early education classes, but unlike children of the same age, he had almost no interest in all courses except music classes. "He would not play with toys like other children. He would not look at people, he would not respond to his name, his eyes were dull, he had no desires, and he often cried..."
"He couldn't sleep well all night and cried every night. He took him out to walk his baby, and he looked cold and didn't laugh no matter how others teased him, but he just collapsed there, his eyes occasionally glanced at him, and his hands were too lazy to move." Li Menglan wrote. "At that time, people were still joking about him "Uncle Zuo."
1
Li Menglan had to send Sasa to a special autistic children's rehabilitation institution. In fact, before this, Sasa also attended an ordinary kindergarten. “But he couldn’t integrate at all, so he just lay down on the ground in a daze, and didn’t contact people, and the teacher couldn’t control it. We had to go back to the institution."
Later, for various reasons, in May 2020, Li Menglan and Sasa's father divorced. Sasa continued to live with his mother.
, but it was raining overnight. . After the divorce, Li Menglan experienced being cheated and in debt. "At that time, Sasa's ability was particularly weak and he was very troublesome. I cried there every night, thinking that our child is like this. Even if the child is a little more normal, I can still hand him over to my parents and make money by myself, but now no one can take Sasa..."
The people around him advised Li Menglan to take the child to his father's house to make trouble. "But the child is innocent, I can only rely on myself. "Li Menglan said that he is only 4 years old, I am only 30 years old, how could the mother and son accept their fate?
New Hope
Before Huai Zuozuo was a full-time mother, Li Menglan worked in fashion design in Zhejiang and Chongqing for 10 years. She said that she liked this job very much, but later gave up because of her child.
"I have to accompany him to class during the day, and I don't have the time and energy to do full-time jobs, but I use my free time to learn to draw illustrations. Now I have the ability to take on some illustrations. I will also do group buying when I am free. Sometimes you see that my circle of friends seems to be quite free and easy. In fact, it is difficult to find a job now and it is not very stable to take orders. I often worry about Sasa's tuition fees. "Li Menglan wrote.
Photo of Sasa and his mother
During this period, Li Menglan also bought a lot of information to collect knowledge about autism and intervene. A year has passed, Sasa has been improving continuously. In the first half of the year, he went to the hospital for a review. The doctor said that his ability has reached a moderate level. Seeing Sasa improve day by day, Li Menglan is becoming more and more motivated.
Now, Li Menglan has also formed a new family, lived with his current lover, and was pregnant with his second baby.
Li Menglan told reporters that she actually does not have such a long-term plan for the future, but is just prepared to be Sasa's depend on for the rest of her life. "I hope he can rely on this talent and have his own future. I don't expect him to become a piano master, but I just hope that he can live a happy life like ordinary people and shine in the future. "
While working hard to raise Sasa, Li Menglan also shared her experiences under the platform "Xingbao Xiaozuo" account to help parents like her. "I also gave myself a mission to use various opportunities to promote and popularize autism. I hope that this world can tolerate this group of children with special needs and tolerate their parents. Parents are really not easy but always ignored. "
Photo of Sasa and his mother
Autism is not " Genius disease "
Autism children are called "children from the stars". Because of the disease, they lack basic survival skills and social skills, and they are even rejected and discriminated against for their weird behavior. In fact, studies have shown that they are just too sensitive to the outside world and just need a sense of security.
On October 17, Li Menglan updated a video. After Sasa became a hot search, she was called a genius by many netizens. She admitted that she was "super happy" and thanked netizens for their attention. At the same time, Li Menglan was also deeply touched, "Many people see Sasa's talent, but what I want to see more is the progress of children. "Li Menglan said, "But the genius development quotient is less than two-thirds of a normal child. Only by constantly working hard to improve the development quotient of a child can I learn the seemingly simple but not as simple as life skills and life interactions. "
Li Menglan wrote, "Autism is not a genius disease, I hope it will not be over-beautified. "
This sentence comes from Zhu Zhiwei, director and chief physician of the Developmental Behavior Department of , affiliated to the Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine. "Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, and the core manifestation is the defects in social interaction and communication, and it combines some narrow interests and stereotyped behaviors. It is true that some children have very high intelligence and have many talents, but they are only part of it. The vast majority (autistic children) have difficulty in communication affecting the learning efficiency, so their intelligence assessment is often lower than that of ordinary children.”
According to incomplete statistics, there are at least 10 million autistic patients in my country, of which the number of children aged 0 to 14 may exceed 2 million. What is more helpless is that there is no complete cure for autism, but through scientific rehabilitation methods, they can learn to live independently to a certain extent.
The social level is also increasing the rescue efforts. China Disabled Persons’ Federation , China Disabled Persons’ Rehabilitation Association and other institutions have successively issued rehabilitation assistance measures. In January 2022, the Ministry of Education and other departments launched the "Action Plan for the Development and Improvement of Special Education in the 14th Five-Year Plan", and it is planned that by 2025, the national compulsory education enrollment rate of disabled children of appropriate age will reach 97%, promoting the integration of general education and special education, and allowing disabled children and ordinary children to grow together. (Li Menglan is a pseudonym Pictures are provided to the respondents)
New Yellow River Reporter: Li Zhen
Editor: Liu Dan
