Nephthys is an almost 10-year-old girl who has been diagnosed autistic nonverbal at 2 ½ years, as reported by Huffington Post. “Due to her neurodevelopmental disorder, she cannot speak, and can imitate cries or sounds repeatedly.”, explains his mother, Alexandra, to the news site. The lack of awareness of this disorder as well as the tendency of people to express an opinion on anything and everything makes her daughter a victim of what she describes as “ordinary violence“.
Permanent judgment
On August 8, Alexandra told on Facebook yet another remark she and Nephthys fell victim to while going to the supermarket. “After a week of more than intense work, after having kept Nephtys because IME [Institut médico-éducatif, ndlr] on vacation, endured the heat, fatigue, we must also face this ordinary violence of not knowing the disability. And the lack of benevolence in the face of disability “, she explains. “So here I am shopping. […] I thought it was pretty cool, honey. Despite the noise, the world, all the stimuli, she was pretty good “, continues this mother.
?? Handicap: Ordinary violence ?? After a week of more than intense work, After keeping Nephtys because IME in …
Published by Alexandra Cunha sure Saturday 8 August 2020
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She explains that her daughter sometimes imitates the cries of children or babies that she hears around her. That day she did it “several times in the yogurt department”. “That’s when I walk past a rather classy, elderly lady. She turns around, looks at Nephthys and says something. I don’t understand. So I ask, ‘Pardon?’. She looks at me. straight in the eye and said: “CAPRICES” “, remembers Alexandra. For this nurse, this ignorant remark was very hurtful: “And there, my arms fell to me. (Well no, not in real life, they hung on my shoulders. On the other hand, my already damaged heart fell, it rolled under the shelf, between yogurts and cheeses). Then my brain recovered my heart. I looked at the lady in my turn and I said to her: “It is not a whim madam, it is a little girl with autism”. I see him decompose and s’ excuse. “Oh I apologize, it’s just that it doesn’t show. There are so many kids who have whims. “” Ma’am, if you don’t know whether it’s a whim or not, then if in doubt, don’t say anything. Because it hurts a lot “”.
Disability, sometimes invisible but real
Alexandra then took her illness patiently to explain to her what non-verbal autism is. She showed the courage to take the time to inform this person: “I chose to be nice. But my heart is loose. It hurts. Once again it hurts. I realize all the people we have crossed who have thought like this lady, who have not. had the indelicacy to tell me. It’s violent … To be judged permanently. And that is the reality of disability. A ball that we carry wherever we go “. She testifies to another time when she and Nephthys were victims of this behavior. “Once, I was waiting at the checkout, and my daughter was afraid of a noise. She started screaming and throwing herself on the floor. A lady laughed, I explained to her that she was autistic. and that she was in pain because of the noise, but she burst out laughing. I told her that seeing a child in pain made her smile “, she tells the Huffington Post.
A mother who does not let the critics defeat
“I find myself apologizing for my child who has a disability, which I shouldn’t have to do. It’s hard enough to have a girl with a disability, and to have unnecessary glances at each other. ‘to be, it does not advance anything. It is hurtful “, explains Alexandra to Huffngton Post. However, no question for this mother to prevent Nephthys from going out: “She loves going out, meeting people. I’m not going to deprive her, she is indeed in her world, but she can be with us.”
With her post on Facebook, Alexandra received a lot of support. She ends her post by writing: “My only comfort is knowing that Nephthys does not understand being judged. She continues to share smiles, joy and light around her. Even those who look at her askance. “
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