Help others further down the spectrum

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I was on a cruise ship once. And there was this girl in a wheelchair. I think she had a severe form of cerebral palsy.

I gave her a little smile. She smiled back. It was a smile that can light up many rooms.

That made my day.

I always love kids/adults who can smile in spite of their horrible struggles.

The only way I can see this being traumatic would be depending on where you volunteer. For instance, my job is working at a middle school and I help students (who are normally on the higher end of the spectrum) in general education classes get all their accommodations/ their class work done as well. However, there are times were I work with kids on the lower end of the spectrum who's behaviors aren't optimal for a general education classroom. As such, we do have students who are self injurious or will attack others if they become too over stimulated. I've seen these melt downs.

They're not pretty and it can be scary. I've had chairs thrown and had to evacuate the other students out of fear for their safety, along with the child being restrained. There's also been time students have attacked me, knocked off my glasses, tried to run away from the school, etc. Granted, part of this is due to we're trying to teach them things and challenge them to learn skills they can use later in life and it can be hard. They get frustrated and sometimes that frustration comes out with violent results. Sometimes, it's due to the fact that the school is a sensory filled environment that overwhelms them. During these melt downs, I have gotten scared and had anxiety attacks (I've also gotten bruises and scratches as well but another story entirely), almost shutting down.

I'm not even covering the bathroom issues or other things that do happen sometimes working with the lower end of the spectrum (some have medical conditions like seizures and those are scary to see/ traumatizing if no one tells you a kid has a seizure disorder). Plus, if you're more sensitive to noise, there are times where younger people on the lower end of the spectrum tend to scream (if they have no other means of communication) or do a lot of vocal stimming to make themselves feel better (a lot of students I work with hum and after about 25 minutes, I'm gritting my teeth and counting to ten and reminding myself to ask what's wrong and not lash out as I have a noise sensitivity.)

If you do volunteer, my advice is to go through a church or some sort of non education group, as those environments tend to be more relaxed and not focused on situations that can cause traumatic experiences. This is just my two cents though. *shrugs*

I have worked on and off with classically autisitc children and adults for 20 years. All I can say (and I can back this up) is I have had results and achived things, made peoples lives better where no one esle could. I say that without ego, its an absoulte fact and anyone who knows me and knows my practice would absoulty back that up. One example, a lady, classic autism a child savant famous for drawing horse as a small child, had not drawn one for 20 years, well, she drew them for me, lots and lots of them, I still have them. (she died two years ago) Children would would not dress, children who would not undress, well they would for me, Children who were very phyisically challening, except when they worked with me.

I was a trainer for many years, some things you just can not train people to do, you get it or you don't.