Author: Dr. Nandita De Souza | Jul 31, 2015
Last week, the close-to-miraculous power of speaking with pictures revealed itself yet again at Sethu. A child with autism who was attending a review session started screaming loudly with excitement when he saw the toys in my room. With great embarrassment, his parents tried to get him to keep quiet by shushing and scolding him. This had the opposite effect. I motioned to them to stay quiet, picked a piece of paper and a pencil and drew a face with an open mouth and teeth (to indicate screaming). I showed this to the child, drew a cross over the mouth with a red pen and calmly said “No screaming”. The effect was immediate. There was silence but I had to restrain myself from whooping with joy. Paper and pencil is all you need. And fortunately, children never judge your talent in drawing (or lack of it)!