When Ellison Chang, 7, just lately recorded a public service message asking New York City subway riders to not maintain open prepare doorways, he added his personal private greeting initially. “What’s up, chicken wing!”
The cause for the poultry-themed salutation? “That past week, we may or may not have had chicken wings,” he defined in an interview.
Benjamin Ruiz, 6, was given a template for his public service announcement urging New York commuters to, please, not litter and to maintain their arms and ft contained in the prepare always. But he rewrote the script to make it his personal. The closing model, which he recorded a pair hours after his bedtime on his mom’s telephone, included a cheery sign-off.
“Remember to be kind and have a happy New York City day,” Benjamin says. “Bye! Have a good day!”
Benjamin and Ellison have been two of the roughly 100 girls and boys with autism who recorded public service bulletins for the transit programs in New York, New Jersey, the San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta and Washington D.C. for April, Autism Awareness Month.
Although not each youngster’s recording made the ultimate minimize, the undertaking has aimed to broaden acceptance of kids with autism and to provide them an opportunity to have their voices broadcast at prepare stations, which lots of them adore.
Many kids with autism focus intensely on the technical features of trains and buses, subway maps and prepare schedules, mentioned Jonathan Trichter, a co-founder of the Foundry Learning Center — a faculty for kids with developmental disabilities in Manhattan — and the driving drive behind the general public service bulletins.
Children with autism additionally latch onto phrases they hear in areas the place they’re intensely centered and use them as a few of their first technique of communication, Mr. Trichter mentioned.
“As a result, it is not unusual for a child in New York City who is on the spectrum to have, as his or her first full sentence, something like ‘Stand clear of the closing doors, please,’” Mr. Trichter mentioned, reciting the acquainted warning that performs all through the town’s subway system. That phenomenon, he mentioned, gave him the concept to pitch the youngsters’s bulletins to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York, which was the primary company to broadcast them final April.
Mr. Trichter mentioned he unfold phrase in regards to the undertaking on Facebook and accepted any recordings that have been despatched to him. It was then as much as transit companies to resolve which of them they wished to make use of.
Transit officers mentioned they have been glad to help the undertaking.
“We know that children on the spectrum are some of our biggest fans,” mentioned James Allison, a spokesman for Bay Area Rapid Transit, which has performed the youngsters’s bulletins in any respect 50 stations this month. “It seemed like a natural thing, and what a great way to give them a thrill.”
The bulletins weren’t solely gratifying for kids and their households, they have been a morale increase for transit companies, which are sometimes the goal of complaints, mentioned Kevin S. Corbett, the president and chief government of New Jersey Transit. Riders have seen, he mentioned.
“This sort of throws people off their regular routine and catches their attention,” Mr. Corbett mentioned. “It’s definitely gotten a really happy feel for a lot of people, much more than any of us would have expected.”
For Brenna Calles of New York, it was particular to observe her son, Morgan, 6, write his personal announcement. Morgan, who couldn’t make eye contact or converse when he was youthful, learn and recorded the assertion “over and over again until he got it the way he wanted it.”
Recently, Ms. Calles took Morgan to the East a hundred and eightieth Street station within the Bronx, the place they waited for an hour to listen to his message. The bulletins are taking part in in 15-minute intervals at 11 main stations in New York, in accordance with the M.T.A.
“Hello, passengers,” Morgan says in his announcement. “My name is Morgan Calles, and I am 6 years old. I love trains and buses. Today, the M.T.A. is letting me share an important announcement: If you see someone at risk of falling onto the tracks, please get help immediately. Tell a police officer or an M.T.A. employee. Be safe and happy Autism Awareness Month.”
Morgan referred to as it “super duper duper duper duper exciting.”
Ms. Calles was additionally moved.
“It’s very special to me because, so many times, kids on the spectrum don’t have a voice and we, as parents, end up being their voice,” she mentioned. “They don’t get the recognition they deserve.”
The kids’s recordings, Ms. Calles mentioned, present there “are so many different types of people on the spectrum, and they’re all different.”
Lisa Stephens, who lives in Atlanta, mentioned her son, Immanuel, 7, recorded his announcement for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority 12 or 13 instances earlier than declaring: “OK, Mom. This is the one we’re going to send.”
Immanuel’s singsong voice, urging riders to not litter and telling them, “Hope you enjoy your ride!” displays his persona, Ms. Stephens mentioned.
“I am so proud of him to the point of almost tears,” she mentioned. “He’s naturally friendly and outgoing, and it’s just amazing to see his growth and potential.”
On Monday, Immanuel and his household rode the Red Line to Airport Station to observe planes take off and land and to listen to the bulletins he and different kids had recorded play over the general public handle system.
“It was great,” Immanuel mentioned in an interview. “It felt like something in my heart, saying: ‘That’s you, Immanuel. You are so awesome.’ And the other kids, we were cheering them on.”
Source: www.nytimes.com