It is time to listen

Autism Speaks created a music video of the Five for Fighting song, "World", which features images of autistic children and their families. It is a truly moving video. The message is out there, we need to listen. Click here to see and listen to the video/song.

"One in 150 children is diagnosed with autism. A new case is diagnose every 20 minutes. One in 94 boys is on the autism spectrum. Autism is the fastest growing developmental disability in the US (probably the same in other countries like the Philippines). There is no medical detection or cure for autism."

What kind of world do we want?

"A world where no family has to live with autism. A world in which a mom can hear her autistic child say I love you. A world that doesn’t judge an individual with autism. Autism Speaks wants a world where autism is a word in the history books."

Things you can do with vote-buying money

I have always found problematic the church's often repeated position on vote-buying which says "accept the money but vote according to your conscience".

One, who will your conscience choose if both the administration and the opposition, even independents, distribute money on the eve of the election? Second, who will your conscience vote for when the candidates being carried the political parties were in the first place chosen mainly on basis of how much they can "contribute" to the campaign? Third, even if politicians who distribute money lose, they don't really think that they lost because the people voted according to their conscience. No, knowing them, they'd think they did not spend enough.

Which is why, in the succeeding election, they will be back with even bigger money to distribute. We therefore as a people need to be more emphatic with our rejection of vote buying. Today, I begin a list of what you can do with vote-buying money in order to deliver our message to politicians and to the major political parties. Try these:

• Paste the money bills and the usual sample ballot which comes with them on a cartolina with huge bold letters saying "HUWAG TULARAN" and post on your gate
  
• Place the money bills with sample ballots of opposing candidates in an envelop with the words "sinong pipiliin ko ngayon?" and drop in the "kolekta" of the morning mass on the day of the election
• When you vote on election day, secretly insert in your official ballot the money bills plus the sample ballot you received, with the name of the person who gave it to you, the time and the circumstance written on the back, and drop in the ballot box
• Scan the money bills and the sample ballot and attach the file to an email and send, with explanation, as a chain letter for continuous forwarding until it reaches the email address of the politician's children
• Upon receiving the money bills with the attached sample ballot, convince the courier to pose for a "ceremonial turnover" picture-taking and send the picture, with writeup, to the community section of your local newspaper
  

More to come. I encourage others to do their own list too and tell me about it by posting a comment here. Of course, I understand it will take guts to do any of the things listed here, but until we'd muster enough courage, we will continue to suffer this unclean election then corrupt government cycle over and over again. What do you think?

Camila Gabrielle

She was named after my mother, her lola Mila. The "Gabrielle" is a consuelo de bobo to me the father. I really wanted to name our second kid "Gibraltar", as in the Rock of Gibraltar. But alas, instead of a son, we got a daughter. We named her Camila Gabrielle.

Sometimes, we feel guilty that our attention is often consumed by our son Roan and we hardly get to play with Camille. Still, you cannot but adore her. She is now a year and 4 months old, quick to her feet, generous with her bedimpled smile, and already showing some attitude, like shrieking to get your attention or to rush you to get things, like water or milk or whatever.

What can I say, we were twice blessed with beautiful kids. Our task now is to provide for their needs, and to shepherd them into the ways of the good and honest. May God help us. :)

Julia's Blog

We've all heard about the blog posts of students regarding the tragic shooting and death of 32 at Virginia Tech University. Here in the Philippines, blogging jumped into the news also because of Julia Campbell, a US Peace Corps volunteer who went missing around 10 days ago in a barangay in Bananue, Ifugao, right in the area of the world famous rice terraces.

Yesterday, a body was found just 30 meters away from path which tourists usually take, and which appeared to have been hastily buried. In all likelihood, it is the body of the US Peace Corps volunteer. Last night, a tv news program reported about her blog and how it gives us a glimpse into her mind.

Searched for the blog this morning and found it downright haunting. In the heading she dedicates her blog to "those who could not be convinced to follow me into the Peace Corps" and welcomed them to her new adventures here in the Philippines. Her last post is entitled "buhay pa tayo".

From her blog, it appears that she's been here for some time, knows how to speak Filipino, was in her apartment in Legaspi, flooded up to the her waistline, when typhoon Reming ravaged the Bicol area and later on troubled by activities of the famous Mayon Volcano. She even wrote about the visit of her parents who took the time to see what she's been doing here.

No doubt she's a good person. It is so sad that her stay here in the Philippines had to end in death, possibly violent. For those curious, read her blog at Julia in the Philippines. Please don't forget to say a prayer for her after.

When children become adults

Or more specifically, what happens when autistic children become adults. This is something that us parents will probably agonize on for the rest of our lives.

There is Gabby who was misdiagnosed for years and had to go through school from elementary to high school to college, and then work for years only to get dismissed, before he was correctly diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrom, a form of high-functioning autism. At 46, he has photographic memory, can draw a portrait in less than five minutes, but dreads parties and finds falling in love and telling jokes perplexing.

There is also Mikki who at 22 dances with arms flapping and swinging left and right whenever and whereever she hears bouncy music, drawing stares and sneers from our fellow Filipinos. When she becomes aware of these stares, she throws a tantrum, beats her head and bites the back of her hands which is now heavily scarred. This unkind attention pains her mother who tells us that in Switzerland, where they lived for 14 years, people left Mikki alone, apparently aware of her condition.

There is Gabe, now 20, a library science college student at the Centro Escolar University who was talking in sentences as early as 2 years old but started talking less and less and diagnosed with autism at 3. He then went to a diagnostic program, had therapy sessions, and went to a regular public school in the United States where they lived. Her father said his condition forced them to stay there longer in the US because they realized that the Philippines is 50 years behind in teaching kids with autism and other disabilities.

And there is Francis, a 17 year old with autism, who got away from his mother Aling Ruby at SM Megamall and tried to go into a movie theater showing a Harry Potter film only to get bullied by the cinema security for trying to get in without paying. He was turned over to the mall security who kicked him out of the mall. He drifted for 15 hours around the area while his mother went crazy looking for him.

Despite his condition and all other obstacles, our goal is for our child to be independent and for him to reach his full potential. Already we are seeing good signs. But we are aware that this can very well be a lifelong battle for us, a battle in the sense that there is very little help and understanding out there from Philippine society.

Talk about autism

As a parent, I needed to know about autism quickly. I found out that autism is a developmental disability that severely hinders the way information is gathered and processed by the brain, causing problems in communication, learning and social behavior. It typically appears during the child's first three years, in roughly 15 to 20 of every 10,000 births, and is four times more common in males than females.

One time I attended a family support session held by the Autism Society of the Philippines (ASP) and the parents there generally agreed that the problem with autism is that the affected children look normal, pretty much like every other kid you know. No doubt this one of the reasons why some parents remain in denial for quite some time, delaying much needed intervention.

For kids affected with autism, language develops slowly or not at all. They use words without attaching the usual meaning them and gestures to communicate to others. They also have short attention span. As to social interaction, they spend time alone rather than with others, show very little interest in making friends and are less responsive to social cues such as eye contact or smiles.

Kids affected with autism have unusual reactions to physical sensations such as being overly sensitive to touch or under-responsive to pain. Their sight, hearing, touch, pain, smell, taste may be affected to a lesser or greater degree. They also do not exhibit spontaneous or imaginative play, do not imitate other's actions and do not initiate pretend games.

As an aid in the diagnosis of autism, Prof. J. Rendle-Short of the University of Queensland Brisbane Children's Hospital, Australia, designed a checklist of 14 behavioral signs and symptoms. No single item is significant alone but if a child exhibits 7 or more of the traits, a diagnosis should be seriously considered. See the checklist here.

To know more about autism, visit the website of the Autism Society of the Philippines (ASP) and this website by a parent who is affected with autism. Illustration above was taken from the ASP website.

Our Roan

My wife always teases me that one day, she's going to tell Roan my first reaction after I saw him the first time after birth. I was trying not to say it then but I couldn't help but ask my wife "Ba't ganun itsura?"

That was because when I first saw our baby boy he did look dark and kinky. It was only after several peeks at the hospital's nursery room did I realize that my son was quite a looker. And he did grow up to be a goodlooking kid. One time we brought him to the Quezon Memorial Circle and some adoring woman said to my wife, "Siguro foreigner parents nyan, ano". I guess she thought we were the yayo, yaya!

Roan brought us joy we have never felt before. At around nine months, he started to stand and and walk. Or should I say, run. Before reaching two years, he was humming the classical tracks of his favorite CD. I remember one time he even hummed the national anthem from start to finish. I was set to brag that our Roan learned to sing even before he uttered a single word.

Until, we had him checked by a developmental pediatrician. At around two years old, he was still not able to say "mama" or "papa", something which comes naturally to almost every other kid. He also did not have eye contact. He watched television oblivious to anyone else, even if you shout out his name. He used gestures instead of words in telling us what he wants. That was the first time we were told of the possibility of autism.

But God really knows. Years back, I got to know through the Internet the president of the Philippine Association of Speech Pathologists. I got to chat with her one time and I ended up helping her put up a website for their organization. As soon as I learned about Roan's condition, I immediately sought advice.

Thus, unlike other kids with similar condition, Roan had the opportunity of early intervention. He has been undergoing speech and occupational therapy since then and have been making great progress. At four, he already has a rich vocabulary, knows his letters, numbers, shapes and colors, and to say please for things he wants. Lately, he even says hi to people he meets. Now, that's something for a kid with autism.

Sign of the Cross

Come to think of it, it is quite funny why we make that extra motion of touching our chins after making the sign of the cross. It is funny because, if asked what is that for, it is very likely that very few if not none of us will be able to give a sensible reply. We seem to do it by force of habit, but for no known reason. Or so I thought.

Our recollection master this Holy Week, a young SVD priest assigned to do mission work at the tip-most part of Palawan, finally gave a plausible explanation. He told us that, during the Spanish times, believers were taught to make the sign of the cross by crossing their forefingers and their thumbs to form a small cross and touching that small cross on their foreheads, breasts, right shoulders and left shoulders, after which they were told to kiss the small cross with their lips.

The explanation actually gave deep meaning to what I have been doing mindlessly for years. Kissing the cross represents one of the key teachings of Christ. It reminds us that there are harsh things in life that we need to accept with humility and forgiveness. These are our crosses and kissing them makes us like Him, if only for a little bit.