From desperate mother to autism therapist: the tale of Ran Cunying
2023-04-05 20:04:41
By Chen Zai, Yichang International Communication Studio
"I didn’t succeed in dying, so I decided to live on," said Ran Cunying, recalling her attempted suicide in 1999. She had been seeking medical treatment everywhere for her 6-year-old autistic son – without success. In desperation, she jumped into the East Lake in Wuhan City, with her boy in her arms.
"I didn’t succeed in dying, so I decided to live on," said Ran Cunying, recalling her attempted suicide in 1999. She had been seeking medical treatment everywhere for her 6-year-old autistic son – without success. In desperation, she jumped into the East Lake in Wuhan City, with her boy in her arms.
After being rescued by a passerby, she decided to pull herself together and do her best to help her son.
"Back then, many children with autism had no place to go for treatment,” she said, “so I made up my mind to study autism treatment systematically and set up a special school for those kids."
China was slow to recognize autism as a disability but, over the past decade, thanks in part to the efforts of people like Ran, there has been increasing social support and media coverage of the condition.
Ran began travelling across the country to attend training courses. In 2003, after being certified, she and her husband resigned from their well-paid jobs to set up the Yichang Boai Special Education School, focused on autism therapy.
They had a hard time getting funding for the school and persuading families with autistic children to join them but managed to recruit four teachers to take care of the three students in the school.
Over the past 20 years, the school has enrolled more than 3,000 autistic children from across China and helped more than 300 children return to ordinary schools.
Autism is characterized by challenges in social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and often repetitive behaviors and restricted interests.
Ran, now a recognized expert, has developed a systematic intervention method to help autistic kids have a normal life.
When he was diagnosed with autism at 4 years old, Xiong Xiong couldn’t talk or walk steadily. He made fast progress when he started attending Ran’s school in 2015. After 11 months of personalized attention, he acquired key life skills and was admitted to university in 2021.
Another autistic boy, He He, won a national youth piano competition after 15 years of Ran's systematic intervention method.
Yichang Boai Special Education School is now an officially designated rehabilitation institution, recognized by national, provincial and municipal Disabled Persons' Federations.
