Durban North school creates autism awareness
Awareness about the spectrum of autism is needed, said Kirsty Miller, director of Action in Autism.
WHEN the 21-day nation wide lockdown was announced, Durban North School, Action in Autism (AiA) postponed their plans to commemorate World Autism Awareness Day. The awareness day, which is celebrated on 2 April, was declared by the United Nations in 2007.
While autism awareness has improved Kirsten Miller, director of AiA said they would like society’s facilities to adapt to allow autistic people to participate at every level.
“There are many families living with autism in the Durban North area, so it has been wonderful to absorb them into our community and support them further if needed. Autism awareness is growing,” she said.
She explained that people with autism differ from each other.
“What autistic people share are difficulties with communication, and that can be with expressive language or processing spoken language. They also share difficulty understanding social rules and norms that neurotypical people take for granted, and they also tend towards inflexibility, and this can be exacerbated when they have anxiety or are under stress,” she said.
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To commemorate World Autism Day, Miller said the school had planned a hop-on, hop-off bus ride through the city, culminating in a silent picnic at the Botanical Gardens on the 18 April.
“During the event we had planned to use only alternative means of communication such as gestures, writing, tapping and pointing, to demonstrate respect for and solidarity with our people with little or no functional speech. Prior to this event we had planned a Pizza and Paint morning, where we usually come together to paint banners and slogans for our main awareness event,” she added.
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Among the initiatives run at AiA is The Shahumna Centre, a skills development and business hub which opened recently to equip Autistic students to earn independent incomes.
“We currently have 12 students at the centre, and hope to expand our facilities to accommodate 16 young autistic people by the end of the year,” she said.
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