Oh the joys of getting together with your colleagues, so you can discuss other peoples lives as if you could live it better then them. I'm sitting there listening to my co-workers speak, becoming slightly agitated. Yes he wants to shake everyone's hand and ask how they are doing. Yes sometimes he may come across as a little too enthusiastic, and yes it may portray a bit of a bad image of him in the social community. We keep talking about what he is doing wrong. I try to be pro-active. I think back to the workshops I sat in on last week. Communication. I try to think what this behaviour means.

On a side note, when I say "behaviour," I don't neccessarily mean it as a negative thing, we all behave, but we are also saying something.

Ok, back to where I was going with this.

I suggest that perhaps maybe this means that WE are slacking. He does this in public, and automatically we would like to start a behaviour program. What if it just means that he is reaching out, that he has a desire to be in the community? He always goes up to men, perhaps he would like to make new male friends, new connections within the community. What makes it difficult for him is that he is autistic, so social situations do not come by with ease, but he also has staff that just see him as being a nuisance when he is in public. Automatically assuming that whenever he goes out he will make a poor choice.

Well then, the co-workers are like, who is this woman to say that WE are the problem. Well I guess I believe in a little thing called humility. Practicing it is a little tough at times with such a stubborn attitude.

I guess we can make all the programs we want, without ever knowing where all of this "behaviour" stemmed from. That is so scary to me. Someone who feels lost in there own mind, bombarded with all sorts of stimuli, trying to reach out the way he knows how. All we do is automatically try to eradicate it. Where is the purpose in that? We are basically saying, "Hey you! You know that voice you have in there? The one that's trying to speak up? Could you quiet down a little?" As a disability worker it is my job to get them to use that voice, the one that they have had all along.

I'm just venting, I may have a point someday, and when I figure it out, well I'll let ya know.

Labels: autism, disability, disability worker