Living with autism - jumping the hurdles

Linda and Tajah Young have a close bond.


Tajah joins with his classmates and teacher, Sedonnie Dias, at West End Primary

Friday,  April 15, 2005

Six-year-old Tajah Young has been diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD, an autistic spectrum disorder). 

“He is a smart little boy and can go far, but he is trapped on his own island,” explained his mother Linda Young. “He needs love and support and attention and people who understand what he wants,” added Ms Young, who spent years teaching her youngest child to look at people when he talked to them. She would gently hold his face, turn it towards her and say, “Tajah, look at me!” She did this not once or twice, but over and over and over. 

She sometimes used different strategies, like holding a toy by her face when she talked to him, and using lots of positive reinforcements. Nowadays, he sometimes needs reminding, but Tajah generally is able to do this by himself - a small achievement for most children but a major hurdle for an autistic child.

This has been one struggle amongst a multitude, as Linda, her husband Ian and their three older children try to reach into Tajah’s world and help him to function in ours.

Because there is no Early Intervention Programme on Cayman Brac, where Tajah and his family live, a partial diagnosis was not made by a local psychologist until he was three years and nine months, and a full diagnosis of his condition, involving a multi-discipline medical, psychological and social assessment, was not made until he was over five years old.

According to the UK National Autistic Society, “Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates to people around them. Children and adults with autism have difficulties with everyday social interaction. Their ability to develop friendships is generally limited as is their capacity to understand other people’s emotional expression. 

People with autism can often have accompanying learning disabilities but everyone with the condition shares a difficulty in making sense of the world.”

Tajah appeared to progress normally in the early months of his life, and at 14 months was a normal toddler. The Youngs first noticed that something was wrong at around 15 months, when the child was hospitalized with pneumonia after his immunization booster shots.

Suddenly, Tajah stopped speaking and started having terrible tantrums. At two years, he would speak a word rarely and then often say nothing again for a week.

Though each person diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder is very different, Tajah shows some typical symptoms: he has oversensitivity to noise and light, he parrots what people say to him, and he has tantrums, though not as frequently as he used to. 

“It’s no good shouting at him - you cannot get through to him that way,” said Ms Young.

Sometimes, when people see Tajah tantrumming in public, many think that she and her husband are bad parents, she added.

“Whatever they might think, I know within myself it’s not true. I’m not going to let that make me keep the child at home. It hurts sometimes, but I know we’re not bad parents, that we’re not doing anything wrong. I try not to let it bother me. There are a lot of children out there with nothing wrong who behave worse than Tajah,” she said.

Ms Young said she is used to getting criticisms from people who do not understand the problem. Some people think that she is over-protective, but this is necessary, she said. Tajah often runs off when he is frustrated and this puts him in danger.

If she wasn’t constantly looking out for him, he would have been seriously hurt by now, she claims.

He is a very loving child, completely without fear and good at drawing, and it hurts her that her child wants to communicate but cannot. Tajah still cannot use more than five or six words in a sentence and can only absorb and understand very short sentences addressed to him. 

Would you like to go for a walk, must be reduced to “Tajah, walk?”, so that he can understand. When people use long sentences, it simply confuses him, said his mother.

Tajah attends West End Primary School, where he joins in with the Year 1 class with teacher Ms Sedonnie Dias, who Ms Young thinks is very good and works well with him. He also has special education classes in school and extra classes after school with High School Special Needs Teacher Susan Bush, who has experience teaching autistic children. These extra classes, which are not paid for by the Education Department, have been working very well, and Tajah has started to read, said Ms Young. 

“The other kids at school are also very good with him. I see them tend to him and look out for him. They don’t laugh at him,” she said. 

At home, her own children, Tashaena (13), Tashaun (10) and Tafari (9), treat him just like she and her husband do.

“They just know how to deal with him. They can tell when a tantrum is coming and how to get down to his level and talk. It’s hard on them a lot of the time - they sometimes just give up a game to avoid a tantrum - but they are very sweet with him and always involve him in their games. They just love him.”

Ms Young urges all parents of autistic children not to give up or lose hope. There is no cure but there is always help, she said. A large part of education for autistic children is play therapy and making the child as happy as possible. Water therapy is great, in the sea and the pool, she said. 

“Give a lot of love and attention,” said Ms Young, who massages Tajah’s head every day. 

Finally, she urges parents of children with autism to pray a lot. Tajah’s first sentence a year ago was a prayer that Ms Young taught him: “Jesus, thank you for loving me. Amen.”

“I jumped a mile in the air I was so happy,” she said.

“Reality to an autistic person is a confusing, interacting mass of events, people, places, sounds and sights. There seems to be no clear boundaries, order or meaning to anything. A large part of my life is spent just trying to work out the pattern behind everything.”

The UK National Autistic Society website, by a person with autism.

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