My Experience with Autistic Children

When I was a sophomore in high school, I had the pleasure of babysitting a pair of eight year old twins. These girls were spunky, funny, sweet, and very strong for their age. Taking care of them meant coming home with bruises, scratches, and dirty clothes. What made these girls so difficult to take care of? Well, they were autistic twins.

At that time, I didn't understand autism very much. I did notice that the girls had slightly different facial structure, and they were very aggressive. There were popsicles in the fridge, and the girls knew this...so they would dangerously balance on a flimsy stool to reach the popsicles. When I arrived on the scene to stop them, they attacked me! They simply attacked me. And it's strange, because I knew that in their minds, they probably believed they were maybe two years old...or even younger. Their bodies were very strong, and I'm sure they didn't realize this. Something kind of strange that struck me as awkward at the time was how the girls would watch this Barney video (the purple dinosaur) repetitively. But the strange thing was that in the video, there was a little dinosaur that flew from Barney's hands into the sky, and then burst into a firecracker. It was supposed to be a 'happy' moment in Barney-land, but every time the girls watched this little segment, they cried, and then re-winded the tape back to that exact part, watched it again, and cried again.

Other than eat, something that the girls loved to do was dance. I would put in the "Surfing in the USA" song, and dance. The girls at first were confused as to what I was doing, but joined in. They were dancing and having such a ball. I felt like at that moment, I somehow was communicating with them on a different level. They were dancing, laughing, flailing around. And for that moment, an outsider would have never suspected anything was out of the ordinary with these girls. They couldn't speak very well, almost to the point of not being able to speak at all, but words were not needed to show how much fun they were having at that time in their lives.

Despite the hardships I had babysitting these girls, I loved them very much. I loved how there was something special about them...different. If I told them they were beautiful, they seemed to understand. If it was raining outside, they loved to run out there, literally jump in puddles, and dart about, not caring that their clothes were soaking wet. And I loved that about them.

My time with the girls was abruptly ended due to the father. It turned out that he was a child molester. I reported this to the church. I was attending at the time, and they sent the girl back home to Utah with their mother. It was a very sad day for me, knowing that the girls were in harms' way, and that I would never see them again.

I could never imagine what it must be like to be the mother or father of an autistic child. How do you feel when your physician tells you that something is 'wrong' with your child? I could only attempt to imagine the pain a mother must feel. A whole new world opens before your eyes. And to that mother, it must seem like a completely negative world which obliterates the vision of normalcy that she may have once hoped for. I do not have any children of my own as of yet, but I have done research on autistic children and the resources that are available to them. I found out that while some people may believe that autism is not treatable, it is. These children born into autism are not stupid. Every since I met those girls, I realized how simple and happy they truly are. They are a different facet of being human that most people will never know or understand. And to me, this transforms them into something more precious and innocent than those people who consider themselves 'normal', yet live and breathe money, wealth and status...not life.