Reaching Out

The fifth graders had hit upon a sensitive issue: Why aren’t more Lebanese schools integrating autistic children into their classes?

“People think that they are stupid, they are not,” said Janine Brouwer, CM2. “People think that they are violent, they are not. These are all prejudices.”

Janine and four of her classmates are part of the PYPX final school project which encompasses all the skills they have been learning since Preschool, including research, inquiry, communication, presentation and writing as well as social and IT skills. Every PYPX project is required to have a service component. Fifth graders are divided into groups – with mentors (a parent and a teacher) assigned to each. The groups chose a topic under the theme of “Who we are”.

Janine and her friends chose to investigate the topic of autism. As part of their service component, the group invited autistic children from the Lebanese Autistic Society (LAS) to spend a few hours playing games with them in the Preschool playground. IC students had prepared athletic, art and craft stations.

Fifth graders seemed quite at ease when the autistic children arrived – all of whom came from the Doha School, which had already established an integration program a few years ago.

“They have one or two autistic students for every 21 ‘regular’ students,” said Nisrine Chamesdine ’05, from LAS and who was accompanying the children. The IC graduate apparently took a special interest in autism when interning as a psychology student, came across a severely autistic man. She found herself inhibited by him. Her own emotions disturbed her so much that she decided to specialize in special education and work with autistic children.

“We have noted that ‘regular’ children become much more understanding,

helpful and caring through these integrations,” said Chamesdine. “They become the protectors of their autistic classmates.”

According to LAS, autism is a spectrum disorder with symptoms ranging from mild to severe. Symptoms vary widely from one child to another but there are some common symptoms that affect mainly social, communication and behavioral skills. A person might have average intelligence, have little interest in other people, use limited verbal language and under- or over- react to certain sounds.

The children who arrived at IC for the PYPX were diagnosed as mild to medium level on the autistic spectrum. Chamesdine reports that their peers at the Doha School have learned to calm and cope with their autistic classmates when needed. “We are here to tell everyone that autistic children are just like everyone else,” said Adam Serhal, in CM2. “They are misunderstood and it is up to all of us to stop these stereotypes.”