This spotlight we speak to Sara Athar, mother of Fatima Hussain Qureshi, who has written a book of poetry Dhanak Kay Rang Hain Saat. The book has been inspired by her daughter with autism, aged eight who has illustrated the book with her art and paintings. In this spotlight we find out more about Sara and her daughter Fatima.
Tell us about your autism journey as a family?
It has been heartbreaking, tiring and full of surprises, a roller coaster ride. Fatima is my only child born after 15 years of my marriage. She is my heart, my soul and the love of my life. Our journey started when we took Fatima to a doctor for severe constipation. The doctor took one look at her and said, “I think your daughter has autism or she is ASD, she is having problems with focus and eye contact, you should take her to a psychiatrist.”. It felt like the start of a nightmare. I felt so alone when I heard the word “autism” and “ASD”. The very next day we got an appointment and took her to a psychiatrist. There we got the news we weren’t expecting. She was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in September 2020 at the age of five and half. I couldn’t believe my ears, I went into a state of denial and in December of 2020, I had a stroke. The stress was phenomenal and my body could not cope with rising blood pressure. My husband was able to cope much better and started reading up on autism. We then started regular therapy for over a year after which we enrolled her in an inclusive school in Islamabad.
Who were your biggest supporters during the early days of the diagnosis?
Although it also came as a shock to them, my siblings helped us and were our biggest supporters. They tried to communicate with Fatima the way she liked and tried to be friendly with her to increase her social interaction and continue to help us in every possible way.
How did you discover your daughter’s love of art?
Fatima, even when she was 9 months old, loved to see colourful books and was able to recognise different fruits in her book. When she was 3, she loved to scribble on her notebooks and asked me and her father to draw different animals and other different things repeatedly. We tried to stop her from drawing in a repetitive way, but she seemed passionate and continued to push us to draw her favourite pictures.
In 2023, I noticed that she is drawing on her bedroom wall some faces and animals and rainbow. They were
very impressive. We didn’t stop her from drawing on the wall. She continued and slowly covered the whole wall. I took pictures of her drawings and saved them on my laptop. At that time, I had already completed my poetry book and was thinking of getting it published but didn’t have pictures to go with the poems. When I saw Fatima’s drawings, I decided to add them to my poems as illustrations. Now her room is full of colourful drawings and paintings made by her. She has plenty of colours and papers to draw and paint whatever she wants. Her favourite things to draw: paintings with a shining sun, clouds, rainbow, and grass.
What do you think she tries to communicate with her art?
Fatima cannot speak properly, therefore, her art is her way of communicating with us. When she wants to go to the playground, she starts making pictures of swings, seesaw and slide and pictures of a playground. She also tries to tell us her feelings about different things. She is full of life and happy colours.
What are your favourite pieces of her work?
I love everything she draws but my favourite are her drawing of a monkey on her bedroom wall, a rainbow, a boat, and a multicolour flower she named “flower the star”, I love them dearly.
Has she been the inspiration of your poetry?
Yes. Although I have been writing poetry for children for over 20 years but when Fatima was born, I started writing poetry for her.
Tell us more about the book you have published?
I have been writing poetry for Fatima since she was born. One day, in 2021, when I was tucking her in bed, I realised that I have so many unwritten poems revolving in my mind, why don’t I write them down and preserve them for Fatima. Then I realised that if Fatima has benefited from them then other children could use these poems too. That’s when I decided to publish my work.
Fatima is the main character of these poems and her maternal and paternal family members as supporting characters and these poems are based on real life events. Most of the poems are in Urdu and few are in English. There is also an academic section of the book. The main aim is to improve imaginative thinking and creativity in autistic children and to increase their knowledge and vocabulary.
Autism acceptance continue to be something we need to work on in our societies. What are the biggest challenges to this?
I think the biggest challenge is that people think that autistic children don’t understand what we say to them or how we behave in front of them. In fact, they understand very well, the problem is that they have difficulty in expressing their feelings in the exact words for us to understand. This keeps them away from the mainstream community and socialising. Their tantrums can also be quite challenging and obstruct socialisation.
And what do you think are their biggest strengths?
The biggest strengths include their energy and commitment to the task of their choice, and they have the tenacity to not only complete the task but achieve excellence at it. Secondly, they are very talented; it is just a matter of finding and providing the necessary opportunities to release their talent.
What advice would you share with autism families just starting their journey?
- Spend time with your autistic child.
- Understand your child.
- Provide the opportunity to materialise your child’s hidden talents.
