On 28 and 29 March 2018 ICSK, Senior students of Psychology Department experienced the field trip to The Kuwait Center for Autism located in Mubarak Al-Abdullah. The students along with the teachers Dr. Navjot Kaur, Mrs. Lovely and Mr. Riaz, started the journey from ICSK Campus at 8:00 a.m. in the morning.
The students first entered a tent where various entrepreneurs exhibited their products. Then they were taken to the reception area of the main building. A few minutes later, guided by the receptionist, they proceeded to the theatre, where a brief film about autism, the center and its purpose was shown.
After the show, they experienced a guided tour inside the center and learnt how people with autism were educated and tended to. Different sections of the center were marked with different colours, indicating the age-group to which the students belonged. They were welcomed to the music room by the music tutor and a student from the center played the piano, much to the astonishment of the crew. Autistic children are attention -deficit, hence, training in music helps them to gain attention, to hear and move. Their computer labs had computers with larger screens to help them understand what they learned. Symbols and objects were placed throughout the building to help the children express themselves or to distinguish between their classes. The visual memory of autistics is very strong, hence instructions are depicted through pictures or symbols.
Autistic children are not good in speaking skills and thus tend to have less interaction with others. The guide took the crew through different classrooms, each dedicated to different artworks like weaving, carpentry, paper-making, clay-modeling, etc. A student from the center demonstrated the crew with the art of wood-carving. Training room for tiny tots, had a ratio of maximum of 4 students and 2 teachers, so as to ensure that each child gets appropriate attention and care. It was divided by a glass partition so that the crew could observe the routine of the students from the other side without interrupting them.
The crew then joined the children in the assembly, interacting with them. Children were overjoyed to interact and play with the crew. After the assembly, the crew was taken back to the reception area where they gave the feedback about the tour and took photos.
The tour offered a chance to glimpse an awe-filled vision of the world that might otherwise pass us. Students could not agree more to the beautiful quote by Adele Devine: Children with autism are colourful-They are often beautiful, and like the rainbow, they stand out. Special children had reached deeply into the mind, heart and soul of the students. The unknown world of a child lost behind the invisible veil of autism gave a new perspective, a new hope and a new meaning to the crew.