Self Advocacy: More opportunities for Persons with Autism

Individualized Education Program Training in Tiny Steps Playhouse
Butuan City

Every people has his or her own purpose in life. Every journey is different especially me as a person with Autism. So aside from feeling inferior start doing self advocacy.

According to Temple Grandin a known “One of the problems today is for a kid to get any special services in school, they have to have a label.  The problem with autism is you’ve got a spectrum that ranges from Einstein to someone with no language and intellectual disability,” 

No cases are the same. So to all people all there do not put autism in the box. Some successful persons are considered autistic. 

Temple Grandin once mentioned in her website  “Steve Jobs was probably mildly on the autistic spectrum.  Basically, you’ve probably known people who were geeky and socially awkward but very smart.  When does geeks and nerds became autism?”

The person who was willing to support my advocacy is Mr. Nino Tumadiang. M.A. Ed. SpEd, LPT who is a SpEd specialist and consultant in every special schools in the Philippines. He obtained his master of SpEd in U.P. Diliman and has a lot of schools under him. Currently, we work as a team. My role was to give awareness and discussions about autism in a perspective of having this condition. His role was to integrate autism, ADHD and other learning disabilities to all schools and pushing our advocacy for inclusive education and work inclusion. 

Here are the reasons why, lets focus on their strengths.

Persons with ADHD are considered multi-taskers, risk takers, spontaneous speakers, make good lawyers, creative, innovative, strong sense of humor, embrace surprises and changes.

Persons with Autism are considered lasered focus on their pursued interests, loyal friends(if they like that particular person), logical, detail oriented, loyal to their marriage and relationships, visual thinkers, cautious in their conversations. 

To enhance these strengths, there should be proper collaborative effort from home, schools and communities.

NO ONE SHOULD BE LEFT OUT.