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You and YoursÌý- Transcript 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4 |
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TX: 07.10.04 - Asperger's Friends Ìý PRESENTER: WINIFRED ROBINSON |
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THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT.Ìý BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 91Èȱ¬ CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. ROBINSON All this month we're investigating the condition of autism. Over half a million people in the UK have some form of the condition and although the way it manifests itself varies enormously a common trait is a problem of personal relationships. Many people with autism are unnaturally self-absorbed and find basic social skills extremely hard to master. Ìý Harbinder Minhas has been speaking to three children with Asperger's Syndrome on how they've learned to cope with the complexities of life at the Charter School in South London. Ìý DONAL I'm Donal, I go here to the Charter School. I was diagnosed at quite a young age and I've had quite a lot of help in a primary school which means I've learnt to sort of get around the social problems which people with Asperger's Syndrome tend to have. And I'm making good progress here, I get on quite well with the other children in my year group and so on. Ìý FELIX My name is Felix, I'm 13 years old, I have many friends who are not at this school but from another but I keep in touch with them lately. And I surf the internet very often. My Asperger's Syndrome is kind of mild to tell you the truth. But I do get upset very easily and I get excited by the slightest things. I'm really obsessive, once I have my mind on something it's really, really hard to get off it. Ìý MINHAS What sort of things do you get obsessed by? Ìý FELIX Well certain types of video games, waiting for mail order to arrive, waiting for mail order to arrive, you know, and also I repeat things - that's what I just did earlier, it's an annoying tendency, I don't know why I do it. Ìý EDMONDSON My name is Bob Edmondson and I run the special needs department. We've had social communication groups where we're teaching things about non-verbal communication, about body language. We've also had, and I think this has been most important and most useful for students, is a buddy system where elder students can support young students with similar sorts of problems. So Donal in year 11 is actually giving something back to other students as a result of his experience in the school. Ìý DONAL Everyone in year 8, the second year, were buddied with a child in year 7, in my case it was a boy called Nishad [phon.] who also has certain learning difficulties. Later I was buddied with Felix here when he started in the school, which I think would have been when I was in year 9. Ìý FELIX It's been hard to adapt to other people because in a way everyone's special in a way. So it was kind of weird trying to communicate with each other because not many people can understand me, some people say I have a weird accent and also I have a rather wide range of vocabulary, with words that they don't understand. Plus I can spell long words, such as difficulty or photosynthesis or you know words like those. Ìý MINHAS How much has it done for you in terms of helping your ability to relate to other people around you and also to communicate? Ìý DONAL Well it's been very interesting to meet people with Asperger's Syndrome whom I see quite a few similarities to myself. By looking at their mother, daughter, help me learn things about myself in a way and how I behave, so I can learn to adapt my behaviour. Yeah it's been quite helpful on both sides I suppose - the buddy type systems. Ìý FELIX I have someone to look up to if I'm feeling a little bit confused about - if I'm stuck in a situation which involves my problem then I can turn to Donal, he's been through it, he's nice, he's good, he's a good guy I like him. Ìý ACTUALITY Okay guys, let's just go through some of these questions. Alright first one is - where do otters build their dens around ... Ìý TOM The thing I probably find most difficult is communicating with teachers because they aren't really the people that I get to know and I find it really easy to communicate with my family and friends because I get to know them and I understand them more. Ìý ACTUALITY Okay, let's just have a look at question 3, it says explain why clearing riverbanks affected the otters. Ìý TOM When we were doing our SATs test for some reason the teacher didn't give me a pen and they said that we could not speak for anything, nothing at all, so I didn't tell her I just read the whole book and went through all the answers in my head and then afterwards I just got shouted at by all the other teachers when I went to my other lessons. Ìý FELIX Many of the teachers understand me and know that I have Asperger's Syndrome so they try to simplify their explanations so that everyone can understand. They're all quite nice actually around me because they know I'm special. Ìý ACTUALITY Why are you wearing long sleeves today? Ìý Because I lost my fleece. Ìý FELIX I can join in, into certain large amounts of conversation but what I don't like is people asking me too many questions at once because once someone asks me a question I don't know why but I have to answer it. Certain students heard they'll say - try to wind me up by asking me lots of questions. There's another problem and that is many people tend to not like me because I don't know why but now I'm perfectly alright - no one bothers me anymore, I've lots of friends. Ìý TOM I play around with most of my friends and normally we go and play on the field - play in quite sporty games and sometimes I just sit down and talk when we've got nothing to do. I usually play with all my friends. Ìý JAMES I'm James and I'm Tom's friend. Sometimes when he does something silly that not many people would do like swallow his hair gel, hair foam remember about why he does it and sometimes if someone annoys him he can get really stressed about something that other people wouldn't get so angry about. Ìý MINHAS How does he show his stress? Ìý JAMES He sits - he sits in the corner of the room and he has his head in his hands. And he doesn't really talk much but other times he just hits people and stuff like that. Ìý MINHAS And do you know why he does these things? Ìý JAMES Yeah, because he's autistic. [LAUGHTER] Ìý MINHAS Tom, why are you laughing so much? Ìý TOM It just sounds weird. Ìý WAITE Eleven-year-old Tom who has Asperger's Syndrome talking to Harbinder Minhas. Back to the You and Yours homepage The 91Èȱ¬ is not responsible for external websites |
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