Autism, learning disabilities not a hurdle for these students

After scoring 72 % in his Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams, Aditya Paradkar, 15, who is autistic, is now looking forward to pursue a career in travel and tourism.

After scoring 72 % in his Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams, Aditya Paradkar, 15, who is autistic, is now looking forward to pursue a career in travel and tourism.

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A student of Utkarsh Vidyalaya at Virar, Aditya finds it difficult to construct a sentence in English but has a photographic memory. “He never forgets a road and remembers routes when we go on vacations,” said his father, Sudhir. “We did not send him for tuitions. Autistic kids can walk shoulder-to-shoulder with others.”

Aditya was one of six autistic students who appeared for the SSC exam in the city. Gufran Ali, a student of Hansraj Moraraji School, Andheri, who is also autistic, scored 76%. “He just could not grasp physics concepts and chemistry equations, so we practiced them over and over again,” said his mother Seema.

For Hilton D’souza, a student of Holy Family School, Andheri, who was diagnosed with a learning disability at the age of 5, a score of 68% fetched several congratulatory messages. “Science was a tough subject for me. I will therefore study commerce and do an MBA later,” he said.