Princess Marie as Patron of the National Association for Autism


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Since our Marie has a nephew who is an autist, she is well suited for this protection.

Summary of article in Billed Bladet #5, 2017
Written by Lene Skaarup.

Our Marie as patron of the National Association for Autism recently visited the protected workshop (*) SOVI in the Copenhagner suburb of Herlev.

Here she met an adult autist, Michael Gravenhorst, who surprised Marie by presenting her with a early birthday present; A holder for ball-pens made from leather, and also a drawing for Queen Margrethe, which he presented with the words: "I have a greeting you (informal) shall present to your mother-in-law, Queen Margrethe". That Marie promised.
At the workshop she spoke with various people, among the a job-consultant. While autists are not that easy to employ many businesses have realized the special extremely focused skills autists often have and find them useful. Especially if these skills can be combined with a structured work-environment.
SOVI is the oldeest workshop in Europe for people with autism and afterwards Marie said: "It was very exciting. People with autism, just like everybody else, need an identity and a job (**) which give them a purpose in live. SOVI helps them define their identity by developing their competences, so that they can have a job and a dignified life".

(*) A protected workshop is a workplace for people, who for various reasons have special needs, temporarily or permanently. The workshops take special care of those needs, enabling those who work there, to at least have a feeling of "earning a living", even if they are otherwise more or less unemployable. It's a question of dignity, versus being on "passive welfare". These workshops are usually funded by the municipalities and they are supposed to create an income via the products or services made at the workshops.

(**) The Danish Constitutions says clearly that all citizens has the right, if at all possible, to seek and hold an employment or be self-employed and thus support themselves.
No one can be denied the right to earn a living.
- In other words you can't be forced to end up on "passive income" nor can you bar anyone from seeking an employment, provided it doesn't go against the interest of the society or public. - I.e. you can't turn professional bank robber.
It also means that a thing like "berufsverboot" goes against the Constitution. In other words: You can't bar people from earning a living based on gender, sexual orientation, race and so on. - Previously Jews were prohibited from a number of professions.
 
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As Patron of the National Association for Autism Princess Marie is in Nuuk, Greenland from today, March 14, till March 17. She'll attend an Autism Conference, a reception for the National Association for Autism Greenland and will meet with children and people living with autism.

The programme has been released today:


** kongehuset.dk: Program for besøg i Grønland ** translation **
 
I thougt this trip might be postponed due to Prince Richard's death.
 
Thanks Iceflower, Polyesco & Eya :flowers:

Summary of article in Billed Bladet #12, 2017.
By our man in Greenland, Henrik Salling.

The first chapter of the Autism Association has just opened in Greenland and as patron for the association our Marie went there to attend the opening of an autism conference.
After having had a look around at local places for autists to meet Mary ended her trip in the capital of Nuuk (population 16.000) where unusual amounts of snow had fallen, surprising even the locals.
The conference were to be opened at the local Hans Egede Hotel, where Marie gave the opening speech.
Mary told our reporter: "There is one per cent of population in Greenland who have autism, so the challenge is just as big as in Denmark. (*)
I'd like to help spreading the knowledge of autism in Greenland, because there is still lots of important information and knowledge about autism missing.
The large distances, the extreme climate and the difficulties regarding transport limits the opportunities of the families. It's extremely important to strengthen education within the field, so that Greenland can have more experts on autism, who will be able to support the families.
There are many affected Greenlanders who still don't know the possibilities and solutions that exist, and who doesn't know how they can structure an every-day life with a child with autism".

Autism is still very much a taboo in Greenland.

After giving the speech Marie met some of the families with autists. Including eight year old Patrick, who had looked very much forward to meeting Marie and getting a high five a picture of her.
But right after the opening Marie had to retire to her hotel-room. She was ill and as such also had to cancel an event. An event where Patrick was supposed to have met her, instead it happened at the opening.

At the opening Marie wore a hand-carved brooch, depicting two hands shaking hands, the logo of the Autism Association.

See here: https://app.box.com/s/pxbs7fiv9g7dvmkycymb8c5baf1yka9i
https://app.box.com/s/qz2bm7uhmy3djpcxor57qxn7v4d90ngh

(*) Does anyone have an idea what the average percentage of a given population who have autism is?
 
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:previous: Thanks, Iceflower. :flowers:

It must indeed be difficult to be a sibling to a child with autism. It looked to me like the boy sitting next to our Marie in the roller coaster liked her a lot!
She also made sure the children heard her say that the children were not afraid at all for riding the roller coaster, but she was a little afraid, so it was good someone (the boy) could hold her hand.
 
I am sure and may understand having myself a mental handicaped Son that there was a selection among the autist Children.
Prince Philippe visited my Son's School years ago and some parents told me they received a letter asking that this very day their Child had to stay home.
 
:previous:

How terrible, must have been such a disappointment for the children...


Here's another nice gallery of Marie and the children at the Tivoli:


** rex gallery **
 
maria-olivia said:
I am sure and may understand having myself a mental handicaped Son that there was a selection among the autist Children.
Prince Philippe visited my Son's School years ago and some parents told me they received a letter asking that this very day their Child had to stay home.
Click to expand...

I understand that this would be distressing to the family. However speaking as an educator and the parent of a spectrum child, I am aware that at times faculty might recommend that a autism spectrum student not participate in an event if they know it could be distressing to the child. Often times it is because they're easily unsettled by a change in their routines and over stimulation due to the noise created by additional people. A royal visit is typically one that the press is involved in and that would see camera crews plus all of their equipment on campus as well. To some students on the spectrum this type of event can quickly overwhelm them.
 
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Thanks, Iceflower :flowers:

Summary of article in Billed Bladet #17, 2018.
Written by Laura Dalgård Hansen.

Indeed our Marie showed up for the 30th conference by the National Association for Autism in Odense.
The whole thing started with a music concert for the 800 people at the conference by a Sigmund, who came in fourth at the years DK version of X-Factor. - I have no idea who he is, but he looks like teenage-fodder to me.
Marie sat on the front row and Sigmund said afterwards: "Princess Marie sat in front and rocked along and smiled, so I blew her a kiss. She's sweet."

After Sigmund it was time for Marie to give her speech and she started by saying: "I know you all feel like dancing, but you have to listen to me now. It's a bit hard to follow Sigmund."

Later on she was taking for a tour among the many stands presenting things to help people with autism. Among them an electric rocking chair.
The purpose is that the rocking motion settle you down and almost rock you to sleep and in that way you (if you are an autist who is agitated) calm down. Especially if it's combined with a heavy duvet. It ensures that you sleep better. - (Presumably because it prevents you from moving about so much in your sleep.)
 
Thanks Eya & Polyesco :flowers:

Our Marie had glaring sunshine all during her visit.

Does anyone with knowledge about autism know what NEST is?
 
Some info on what it was our Marie was learning about when she visited the school in Aarhus today:

The project NEST is about putting children with autism in classes with normal children.
What normally happens when you put children in a class, is that the children adapt to the new class, to the new way of being taught and so on.
Here it's the other way around. The class and the teaching adapt itself to the children with autism.
It costs just as much as having a special class, even though most of the children do not need special attention, but it has turned out that children with autism who go to school in a normal class, develop better social skills and better language skills than children who go in a class only with children who have autism.

- I presume this project applies to children who suffer from milder degrees of autism.
 
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Muhler said:
Some info on what it was our Marie was learning about when she visited the school in Aarhus today:

The project NEST is about putting children with autism in classes with normal children.
What normally happens when you put children in a class, is that the children adapt to the new class, to the new way of being taught and so on.
Here it's the other way around. The class and the teaching adapt itself to the children with autism.
It costs just as much as having a special class, even though most of the children do not need special attention, but it has turned out that children with autism who go to school in a normal class, develop better social skills and better language skills than children who go in a class only with children who have autism.

- I presume this project applies to children who suffer from milder degrees of autism.
Click to expand...


Yes I would presume that this is for children who are on the mild end of the autism spectrum. I remember when the first student who was identified as having autism was mainstreamed into my colleague's classroom back in the mid-1990's. He did spend a good portion of the day in a smaller setting for his English language arts (reading, writing, speaking, listening) and math, but for other subjects was in his regular education room of about 28 students. ? There were some challenges ie: his parents refused to allow the others students know that he was autistic. So when he displayed some autism associated behaviors: spinning, pacing,scripted speech, hand flapping, we were only permitted to say that he had asthma. (Which confused those who also had asthma and didn't display any of those behaviors. )


As time went by he settled into the school routine and with assistance did graduate from high school with his class. About five years later we began to identify and acknowledge those who had Asperger's and would provide them with the special education services that they required to help them to be successful.



Of course there are some students in which their diagnosis (ie: non-verbal students) would require a smaller setting, one to one assistance and the technology to assist them in communication. By law we're are required to provide the least restrictive environment so sometimes that means that mainstreaming must be attempted even though the ultimate placement might be a smaller setting rather than a general education one.


For today's engagement at the Youth Employment graduation.
Lovely to see Marie present at the students' graduation from the event.



Muhler-Are the caps typical of what students receive at the end of their education? I think I've seen them in other Scandinavian countries' ceremonies.
 
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Thanks for your story, TLLK ?

Yes, these caps are for high school graduates (called "studenter" in DK, so unsurprisingly such a cap is called a "studenterhue")

They are usually presented after the last examination, by parents or another relative, often with a bouquet of flowers. - Or in this case by our Marie.
The graduates will wear these caps with pride well into the summer, both at the many parties for graduates but also simply going down to buy a magazine at the local kiosk.

I don't know when the tradition with graduates wearing these caps started, but they have been around at least since at least the 1840s. - And so have the parties...
Here is a delightful picture of Swedish-Norwegian students visiting Denmark in the summer of 1862, and as the caption reads: You may notice they have had their lunch...
https://app.box.com/s/wr6vadma4vp6qlvtlihuik74cffcys9a

These caps are not handed out, you have to buy them.
And today all sorts of educations now have a cap in various colors, so it can be quite bewildering!
 
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