A STUDY OF A DEAR AUTISTIC CHILD

A STUDY OF A DEAR AUTISTIC CHILD
Master Kshetradnya Kuwalekar
I had first seen him in the activity room going around in circles with the sole object of being continuously busy, climbing the slide, going under the tables, occasionally stopping to minutely examine a new object and abandoning it after some time.
Not really knowing what I would be in for, I opted to take up the challenge of being the class teacher of Std. I A, Kshetradnya’s class. As a free gift I got cute little Ashlesha. I have a little study about her too but let us go to that later.
Kshetradnya is seven years old and pretty strong. He refuses to make any eye contact. He drones most of the time. Initially he kept to himself but as he became familiar to the new environment, he started exploring his surroundings. He purposely falls over his classmates. Sometimes he starts shouting as if he is angry about something. On such occasions he literally prowls the class and grabs some new type of compass box, crayon or pencil, anything that catches his fancy. What amazed me is the way the children handle him. They ignore his ‘sound levels’, his unusual behavior and only look at him warily when he comes near. Only when he takes anything that is theirs, do they protest. Some give him a tough fight.
I was told that he went to a special teacher. Here he got the one to one attention that he needed for his development. I went to meet her and learn her methods. I was astonished at the manner in which he put together a train set within no time. He then demanded for animals to arrange around the tracks. He also built a relatively complicated vehicle using the pieces of meccano by looking at the guidance manual. Once Kshetradnya wants something, whether it be a piece of a toy or a particular crayon he becomes obsessed with it and will not be satisfied with alternate articles however interesting they be. He just throws away the other ‘offerings’ with venom.
Occasionally, his explorations have yielded rich dividends in the other classes. At the sight of his familiar face, children just scream warnings and instantly hide their goodies. He loves circular movements and many of the benches of room no. 7 have been colored white with crayons. Kshetradnya can read quite well, in fact he loves to do so. He loves new colorful books and eagerly searches for his favorite animal- The Elephant. He repeats the word with great joy. He named all the familiar creatures on a new chart that was put on display. But he liked the elephant the most. He seems quite intelligent. I find it extremely difficult to give him the kind of attention that he needs. If I could do so I would have been able to tap the intelligence and talent that definitely possesses.
Below are some specific observations.
1st October- We had EVS oral and Drawing exam. Kshetradnya seemed out of sorts. He didn’t respond to my request to take out his colors and when I took it out for him he just threw all of them on the ground. He was alternately wailing and screaming . After he took away another child’s white colour and kept it for sometime, he became quiet. I gave him two books to go through. He searched for his favourite ‘elephant’. Then he kept himself busy joining the dots and tracing pictures of animals.
4th November – We meet again after a long and relaxing vacation. We had Craft. Marble paper had been distributed to all. As instructed, Kshetradnya made a triangle fold. I demonstrated how to make ‘ Aeroplane’ to the class and made one and flew it towards Kshetradnya. He was delighted. He flew his in my direction and a ten minute game ensued. His squeals of delight were a treat to hear. Another remarkable breakthrough was that he was making eye to eye contact, he was actually communicating.
6th November – The moment I entered the class, I got three written complaints. I knew what they were about even before reading them. Kshetradnya had torn two workbooks and broken a compass and a waterbottle the previous day. Since he does not copy from the board, he has plenty of free time. When his classmates don’t show him their possessions he simply takes them by force. Sometimes to only throw them away again. When he faces opposition all hell breaks loose. There is no stopping him then. He is big for his age. Even I am not able to control him then.
Anyway today was ‘waterbottle inspection’ day. Finding nothing new in the class, Kshetradnya strolled out. He looked closely at all the new varieties, changed their places and then poured water from one to the other and back again.