Autism Awareness Quiz Nite

In our last week of the fall-winter semester at the Shenyang Aerospace University, one of my teacher colleagues from Hawaii left earlier than planned. On the side, he tutored young English students brought by their parents to one of many storefront schools that specialize in small class instructions of languages for children of those anxious to get their children get ahead in the rat race toward passing government standard tests. English proficiency is one of the areas tested.

I had three fourth-grade students in one of the classes. The Chinese administrator, curious on how I went about my pedagogy, asked if we could have the lesson in the open classroom where the parents usually waited, instead of the more private room where we closed the door. So we did.

One of the parents who brought her girl had an older boy, at first blank-eyed and non-communicating, almost acting sedated and obviously under very close supervision. I use tunes that students are already familiar with from TV and radio to get them vocalize their oral English, get them familiar with words they already have seen written, have them hear how words are used by a “native” speaker (me), and get them to repeat it so they can hear the words again in their own voice.

The almost two-hour session was divided into two 45-minute sections, and two-thirds into the first section, I noticed the quiet boy getting animated each time we sang a tune, while the mother copiously wrote whatever I said. I suddenly realized that the son and the mother had actively slipped into and joined the class.

I remember this because the boy had all the symptoms of what the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV – published 1994 with a 2000 text revision, and DSM-V in 2013 by the American Psychiatric Association) classify as a developmental disorder. My familiarity with this category stems from my having two PDD-NOS (pervasive development disorder not otherwise specified), aka ASD (autism spectrum disorder) children.

The category is perhaps new in the Chinese lexicon (the boy Lin Zi Kai’s mom thinks that she might have bumped the child’s head on something in his infancy) while the incidence is widespread around the world as we continue to chemically interfere with our metabolism in intakes we inject into food preservatives and additives, and possibly, even medications.

My children are now 17 and 20 this year, living 12 time zones away with their mom so I thought I already graduated from the front row seat of the autism theatre. With the challenge of enlightening many parents bewildered by a seeming disorientation of their children (in a culture where disabled kids until 1980 were commonly called “useless,” can fei), I am back to shedding light on a subject that is just beginning to be addressed in China in spite of the fact that country’s laws are very protective, generous, and supportive of the rights and prerogatives of the disabled.

It was about a decade ago when we got a phone call from Radio Australia. Someone had been researching “autism in the Pacific” and a digital scanning of news items from the region discovered that the word “autism” had a fairer share of usage on Saipan than anywhere else in the Pacific except Hawaii. Somehow, the researcher got my name and phone number, and he wanted to know why.

We had self-organized parents of children diagnosed with ASD informally meeting at the IUMC’s Resource Center in Oleai, and later at the short-lived STaRPO office created with a PSS MOU in Chalan Kanoa. Parents tried to understand PSS’ Special Education program where pedagogy for their children were administered, and a give-and-take relationship emerged.

Now, the Autism Society of the CNMI that meets at NMPASI in Gualo Rai has an organizational setup to accommodate parents’ concerns about their PDD children. AS-CNMI is sponsoring a fundraising and fun Quiz Nite tomorrow night, Saturday. Aimed to promote awareness of ASD, the group by no means has contact with all parents whose children might have received the diagnosis. They need assistance to broaden service coverage. Also, given the stigma that still abides for children diagnosed with a “mental disorder,” though we may not call them “useless children,” they represent occasions when parents’ “explain them away” with all kinds of rationalization.

NMPASI is strong in considering the so-called “disabled” as merely “differently-abled.” What is in a label? A hell of a difference! That is why I would encourage folks to attend the Quiz Nite Saturday at the Saipan World Resort Taga Hall, from 6pm to 10pm. Meet some of the children and the parents. No one has disposable income these days but a $20 contribution toward the night’s activities will be appreciated.

Parents have recently been invited to participate in the ongoing review of DSM IV toward the new DSM V where ASD is defined. Send queries on this matter to JamesRayphand@yahoo.com (NMPASI), or, Silpavali@gmail.com (Marg Olopai-Taitano, Disabilities Council), or, Larissa.Larson@gmail.com (AS-CNMI).

I will be seeing Lin Zi Kai again, not because I have to but because this continuing drama of the inability to grasp the continuing glory and awe of human existence, however it shows up, tugs at the entrails of our soul. As the spirit moves, so do I.