Carina Morillo: To understand autism, don't look away
Carina Morillo: Para entender el autismo, no quites la mirada
Carina Morillo is an advocate for the social inclusion of people with autism. Full bio
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into an eye-contact coach.
en entrenadora de miradas.
exists in images.
de palabras en imágenes.
cuando tenía dos años y medio
when he was two and a half.
de ese momento con mucho dolor.
or to anything we asked him,
he would look at me,
que a él le gustaban,
a seguirlo en esas cosas,
to working with him on those things,
más y más momentos de miradas.
eye-contact moments.
jugando a la mancha
with his older sister, Alexia,
sentía que él estaba vivo.
I could feel he was alive.
de horas en la pileta.
in a swimming pool.
muy fuerte por el agua.
we'd go swimming.
dejábamos de ir.
and I took the wrong exit.
inconsolably, nonstop,
desconsoladamente, sin parar,
that a two and a half year old
no respondiera a su nombre,
que yo no lograba ver nada,
where I couldn't see anything,
perfectamente el camino?
una memoria visual excepcional,
had an exceptional visual memory,
pictures of everything,
en la que Ivan nos cuenta
Ivan's eye contact that mattered.
not only his autism,
to give of myself.
tenía que poner de mi parte.
in a neighborhood near our house.
de casa, en otro barrio.
while I was waiting for him,
hacía tiempo esperándolo,
with a little bit of everything.
que tiene un poco de todo.
a caminar solo por la calle,
to walk down the street by himself,
if Thursdays around 2pm,
los estantes de botellas de agua
the water bottles on the shelves,
some chocolate cookies,
unas galletitas de chocolate,
of water bottles
de botellas de agua
perfectamente enfiladas
lined up on the same side,
with his chocolate cookies.
para incluir a otro.
to look each other in the eye,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Carina Morillo - Autism advocateCarina Morillo is an advocate for the social inclusion of people with autism.
Why you should listen
Carina Morillo is a founding member and president of Fundación Brincar, a non-profit organization in Argentina that has worked since 2010 for a better quality of life of people with autism and their families.
Morillo started Fundación Brincar -- inspired by her son Ivan, who is currently 16 years old and has autism -- because she strongly believes that although life with autism can be challenging, her family and others like it have the right to be happy. In spite of its high prevalence, most people still don't know what autism is about or how to help someone with autism. The foundation offers support services and training to families and professionals, community awareness programs and art and skills training for children, youth and adults on the autism spectrum. Brincar has trained more than 15,000 professionals and families, and it currently offers support services to more than 3,000 families throughout Argentina. The foundation's free virtual library monthly reaches 400,000 people per month throughout Latin America and Spain. Brincar is also founding member of the Argentina Network of Autism, and has become one of the leading autism references for both families, health professionals and teachers in Argentina and Latin America.
Morillo is actively working on the creation of an adult life platform for living with autism. Like many parents, her main concern is who will take care of her son during his adult life. Around one-third of people with autism remain nonverbal, and one-third have an intellectual disability, requiring 24/7 support throughout their life. Existing facilities and services in Argentina and Latin America are limited to school age, with no residence or occupation solutions for anyone older than 18.
Morillo has been awarded the 2016 US Ambassador in Argentina Entrepreneur Prize and the 2014 Argentine Solidarity Prize. In April 2017, Fundación Brincar was declared of Social Interest by the Congress of the City of Buenos Aires for its open community services. Morillo holds a BS in Business Administration degree of Babson College.
Carina Morillo | Speaker | TED.com