Autism at Carnival time

DR RADICA MAHASE

ETHAN loves Carnival. He loves bright colours and he loves looking at the costumes. Every year he begs his dad to take him to the Queen's Park Savannah in Port of Spain. At age 13, high functioning on the autism spectrum, his only problem is the crowd; he is very sensitive to touch and he doesn’t like people touching him. His father will usually find a quiet area in the Savannah where they will spend a couple hours every Carnival so that Ethan can watch the costumes and enjoy himself.

“Last year my son was very upset because his school had a Carnival jump up and the teachers told him if he wanted to take part he had to stay with the crowd of students, and if he had to stand on the sides then don’t come to school. So he missed his school’s celebrations and he was very agitated.

"We made sure to take him to the Savannah but then we had a very scary incident. The whole family went – there were four adults with the group and we were all liming on the Savannah and next thing we know Ethan wasn’t with us. In a split second he was gone. We are always so careful and we just don’t know what happened. We looked for two hours before we found him… he had gone by the stage area because he saw a bright colourful costume that he liked.”

Thankfully, Ethan was found safe and enjoying himself. His dad said, “All of us panicked. We were so worried because Ethan doesn’t really communicate verbally with anyone he doesn’t know. My heart almost stopped beating that day and I am telling you, I know my son loves Carnival but Carnival is not for children like him, there is nothing in place to give him a chance to enjoy it in a safe environment so I really don’t know what to do this year. I know he really wants to go and I know I should take him but we are just so worried that something will happen again. Because no matter how much you watch him there is always danger with crowds like that.”

Ethan’s father is very correct. Carnival is the main cultural celebration in TT but it is also the most non-inclusive when it comes to those with special needs. Not one public event caters to those with special needs. This year $139 million is being pumped into a celebration that does not have even craft activities for those with special needs. This is sad because it really doesn’t take much effort for the relevant ministries, whether it is education or culture to organise things such as Carnival craft workshops, trips to mas camps for those from special schools, practical workshops on costume-making, etc. Special needs children love sensory activities and are visual learners so imagine how much they will enjoy activities like painting costumes, making craft items, and so on.

It’s not that events like these are impossible to organise or even expensive to organise (just a tiny piece of that $139 million will be fine) the reality is that the relevant ministries and other stakeholders simply do not think about those with special needs. We know that there are children with special needs but they exist on the margin of society, with no serious considerations of their interests. Regular Carnival activities might not appeal to everyone with special needs but this doesn’t mean that they should be left out totally. How about a mini version of kiddies Carnival for those with special needs?

Also, what plans do we have in place to deal with incidents of wandering like in the case of Ethan? We see so many notices by the TT Police Services about protecting our children at Carnival and the scary thing is incidents are possible. In that case are our protective services personnel trained to deal with non-verbal children? Are they trained to deal with special needs kids in general? What kind of sensitisation programmes do we have in place for them as well as medical personnel, first responders, etc? These are the kinds of questions we need to start asking so that generally, at a national level there is a better approach to facilitating those with special needs at cultural events. Carnival is not truly a national event until everyone in the nation is included in it.

Dr Radica Mahase is founder/director Support Autism T&T