Journal of Experiences: A moment in our lives

November 08, 2019

Dear friend,

Today I would like to recall a smart and funny boy that I knew in 2016. His name is Roger and he was just five years old. I have studied Psychology half time as a undergraduate in a private institution when I applied to a scholar mediation internship. It was in childhood education, at a public school in my district.

I stepped on that school for first time to meet the class, teacher and other workers that'd be part of my routine as a little autistic boy's scholar mediator. In that moment, one comment about Roger made a strong impression on me: "- It will be very difficult and you'll need to run so much after him!" . Until then, I couldn't guess Roger's face, but I just was led to think of him as a problem.

My role was guiding him over his routine in the school, since his arrival there , going through the activities in classroom and the physical education classes, break, going to the bathroom and until the end of the scholar time. To sum up, I'd be his emotional support in that place where he'd be far from home as the other children. However, in my first meeting with Roger and his mother in the classroom, I found out I couldn't make that alone.

The little boy arrived very distrusting and restless at the school in his first class day. He had been accompanied by his mother in the scholar routine over the last year and it was obvious that he'd prefer keeping the things in the same way. Roger refused to separate from his mother and to come closer to me, his teacher and little colleagues, so that the director decided to make this by a forced way. And as he still didn't use verbal language to communicate, the first days of interaction were marked by weep, angryness and aggressiveness. Those were his defenses against the place where he didn't want to be at.

Nevertheless, step by step, Carla, the Roger's teacher, and I went building an emotional base for him in the school. I could communicate with him as we had to known each other. I had known little by little the triggers of stress to him and his limits. Then Roger and I started to do adapted tasks together, which worked similar skills than those by the non-autistic children. Over time, he was increasingly becoming more independent in his scholar routine and acting more freely, but the school kept a challenging place for a five years old autistic boy. He had sudden changes of mood, especially when the atmosphere got troubled.

But, despite all the adaptation difficulties that are typical of autism, Roger grew up so much over one year and he started to understand that school was a possible place to him too. Today, he is eight years old and studies in other school. He is improving his communication skills, he can speak some words, and he continues his formation. I love this boy and I cheer for his development.

Yours, Mandy.