Crossroads School, a remedial school in the suburb, celebrated World Autism Day to mark the worldwide celebration.
The international awareness day fell on 2 April and to make their day of awareness special, the school dressed up in various hues of blue.
Teachers lead discussions on different situations one might go through during the school day and how children can handle these situations or help someone on the autistic spectrum to deal with them. They also watched a video that raised awareness of people with autism.
The principal of the school, Carolyn West said the day was to promote tolerance for behaviour that resulted from living in a world of sensory overload.
“We have children who are on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum and we did some class activities to help the children to understand what it would be like for these children,” said West.
She added that teachers also helped the children identify when they perhaps might have the same social and sensory issues as a child with autism.
Sharing that part of the awareness and education was to help the children understand others on this autism spectrum and teach them how to understand them and their behaviour, thus building a tolerance and respect for children who are different.
“Even if this means just understanding the other child’s point of view.”
West concluded that awareness days in society promote tolerance and understanding of what people are dealing with and going through so that people can be more tolerant and celebrate differences instead of alienating people who are different.
“For our children, it helps them to realise that treating people differently is a form of bullying too.”
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