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| Mona Magno Veluz, President of Autism Society Philippines, with her son Diego. They were helping Carl who is autistic, during the bazaar. |
With recent news reports on Karen Davila's son getting injured during a surfing training incident in Siargao, I randomly asked the question whether a mother with an autistic child would venture into sending her son alone to learn a rough sport like surfing.
By some coincidence, I bumped into an old classmate Mona Magno Veluz who happens to have an autistic son and is also the President of the Autism Society Philippines. And so I asked her to enlighten me about autism in general and to help others understand what it is all about.
According to Mona, there is no conclusive evidence yet about what causes autism but researchers are looking into genetics and environmental factors as possible causes.
"I got married at 24. At that time, there was no Internet yet. I didn't know what autism was," she started. She continued that they simply noticed that her son Carl was not talking at age 5 and only played beside other children.
They visited a developmental pediatrician who evaluated Carl through an assessment of behavior. Mona explained that autism is a neuro-developmental condition and is a lifelong predicament that can be managed by early intervention and acceptance in the family.
Carl managed to finish high school and reached first year in college when he experienced bullying from his teacher. Because of that experience, he stopped school and started a food business instead, after getting his TESDA training as a barista. Promise Advocafe sells muffins and drinks in bazaars and tries to partner with others who have similar challenges. For example, the muffins sold at the bazaar were made by an autistic baker.
Mona explains that many autistic children go on to finish college and engage in other adult pursuits. One child has managed to become a licensed mechanical engineer while another is a college grad who teaches special education.
Her organization also works with other companies in order to encourage them to employ autistic persons. The program that started around three years ago has successfully engaged with SM markets (Supermarket, Hypermart, Savemore) where they have employed 61 autistic adult individuals in 17 stores nationwide.
And so I asked her if she as a mother would send her child alone to learn some surfing. While Mona admitted that she may have a hard time letting go of her own child, she clarified that David (son of Karen Davila) may be a different case, especially since the parents disclosed that he has autism.
"David is able and independent." Mona explained that she knows the family to be physically active and works out regularly.
She continued, "We advocate inclusion. They should not be siloed - that there is a special needs everything. I feel it was the responsibility of the establishment to say that your son is special, what should we do for him?"
In other words, since it was disclosed that David is autistic, Mona feels that it was a lapse on the part of the trainers not to have said what their limitations in teaching were. According to her, there were some basic rules in training like having two people to release and to catch that were not followed.
After my chat with Mona, I realized that people in general have differing opinions about how the Karen Davila situation could have been handled. In the end, I think it all boils down to parental responsibility since the child is a minor. It is really up to the parents to ascertain whether a certain training program is adequate or not. It is also up to the parents to ensure that the program they have signed up for delivers as promised. Because in the end, if something serious ever happened, there would be no one else to blame but themselves.
