My encounter with Autism

I met some 9 year olds who have autism spectrum disorder.I found them very friendly and communicative.They return the love and affection showed to them but they don't socialize with everyone.They are willing to learn and are very intelligent in mathematics, better than myself!I learnt that they have the capacity to learn only their socio-psychological and behavioral factors prevent them to learn what mainstream children can learn.They lack attention but when they learn they know it well.Their ability to read and picturize what is written in text is limited, although they have good vocabulary.Unlike common children they cannot comprehend a story in writing because they cannot grasp what is written in the text.They have to go through the process of what is being said in-order to feel and perceive it.With extra help from special educator they can cope up with regular educational process.I have observed that the special kids easily relate their difficulties while normal kids have the tendency to hide their weaknesses.Since regular children don't have behavioral problems, it is difficult to pinpoint their disability areas.
Ordinary kids do have a certain degree of problems but they are able to keep them at the backyard.People who interact with them cannot really comprehend their individual vulnerabilities, since the normal ones do not disclose their problems to anyone.
Therefore each child has to be understood in terms of what they are and there difficulty level. They should be encouraged in what they do best (no matter how bad are the career prospects in terms of the present state of things as they are subject to change!) and should pursue it as their dream career.Only then they can be successful.
The special needs children need individual attention and special education program according to their level of understanding.They need to be dealt with more patience and understanding and require an extra helping hand in their learning process.I can see that(with some guidance), they will improve their learning abilities and gradually, very soon they will advance towards the mainstream arena!