What the conversation around “virtual autism” is telling Pakistani parents, educators, and early childhood classrooms and why we are only beginning to listen.
There was a boy sitting in the corridor outside a parent workshop I was running last year. He must have been three, maybe three and a half. His mother was inside the session. He was with a domestic helper, parked on a plastic chair, a tablet propped in his lap.
He did not look up when I walked past. He did not look up when another child came and stood near him. He did not look up at all, for the entire two hours I was facilitating. He was not upset. He was not restless. He was perfectly, completely still.
On the way out, his mother mentioned almost as an aside that his nursery teacher had suggested he be assessed. He was not talking much. He did not play with the other children. He preferred to be alone.
“Woh bus khaamosh hai,” (He is just quiet,) she said. “Humein lagta tha yeh uski aadat hai.” (We thought it was just his nature.)
I have been thinking about that boy ever since.
Continue reading “We Thought He Was Just a Quiet Child”