I've always been drawn to people on the autistic spectrum. I don't know what it is about them. Maybe because they are the only people who will be completely genuine with you all of the time, or maybe because they are the most underestimated humans. Whatever it is, for years I always knew I wanted to spend my career working with them.
Recently, I accepted a job working with a 23-year-old man on the autistic spectrum. I have only been working for about two weeks, but it has been the best experience and has only reassured me that this is what I was meant to be doing with my life. Although it did give me a sense of confidence and enjoyment, it made me realize what a demanding job it really is.
I am the first college freshman they have hired in 15 years, mainly because freshman would be too young and inexperienced to work with someone alone (which is understandable). This already adds an enormous amount of pressure for me to impress them—not just for me, but for the young aspiring neurodiverse clinicians out there as well. But pressure is what I can deal with best. Every day I must sit with him for about 20 to 30 minutes and do what is called "pairing" with him. So we will be on his laptop, and I will try to engage with him and have him engage with me back. This will make sure that I can gain constructional control over him (which is being able to place demands on him and having him listen) before I try to get him to follow any orders I give him.
Once I pair with him, I have him go to the bathroom, wash hands, brush teeth and take a shower. There is an extensive amount of steps I have to follow in order to make sure he does it independently and correctly. Then we will move on to our big activity which can be either going to a sports lesson or just going for a walk. This is to get him to exercise and also try to help increase his ability to follow demands and increase his language capacity. The goal is to get as much language out of him as possible.
After our big activity for the day, we will do what is called "get info," which is where he downloads a bunch of YouTube videos from a list we made together earlier in the day. And then we will always end our day on "acting," which is when we just dance to a bunch of YouTube videos together while he records it on his iPod to play back in later dates.
He can definitely be a handful and sometimes I wonder if I'm even right for the job. But the key is to be patient and know that it will pass. After 15 to 20 minutes, he'll eventually calm down and things will go back to normal where we will just dance to Disney videos or go find "Meg" (from Hercules).
I love my job so much, and every time I see him I remember why I wanted to do this in the first place. He reminds me that people on the autistic spectrum are just human beings who have feelings and they're so intelligent especially in their areas of interest. He reminds me and so many people you just have to open your mind and give them a chance before you make any judgement. Closing your doors before you get to really know someone makes you miss out on a potentially amazing person. He reminds me that this is what I was meant to do with my life and I am so happy he never fails to do that every single day.
