Health News - How one mother copes with her son's autism - Cafe owner Caroline Chan launches her KurumiKidz CD

Published: 17 February, 2011
by TOM FOOT

CAFE owner Caroline Chan, who has just produced a children’s music CD, has spoken of the challenges she faced in dealing with her son’s autism – and how those challenges have inspired her to make positive changes in her own life.

Autism, a neurological condition whose symptoms include obsessive behaviour, can be worsened by what the sufferer perceives as disorder.

Ms Chan explained that even something as mundane as bin collection can cause trauma for an autism sufferer.

She recalled the day when her recycling team were taking unusual care over the position of the bins on her street. 

“They were asking me: ‘All right like this? But are you sure, love?’ And all the bins were sitting in a perfect, neat straight line.”

Unbeknown to Ms Chan, her 24-year-old autistic son, Oliver, had been complaining for some time to the Town Hall about the chaotic return of the bins from the dump-truck.

Ms Chan, who lives in Archway, explained: “Oliver thought they had not been put back in the right place. I had to say sorry to the recycling team and explain I was very happy with my public service! But that is what it is like with autism.”

She talks about how the condition can be “very destructive” and how people lose their patience quickly when they think you are unable to control your children.

But a chance discovery that her singing was helping Oliver’s development lead to a new career for Ms Chan – she now sings to children and the elderly, mainly in schools and day centres in Hampstead and Kentish Town. 

Ms Chan said: “I found that with spoken words he would not respond. But if I sang it had a different effect. He would kind of wait to see what the end of the song was and sometimes join in. 

“I started volunteering at a school and then I thought I should turn it into something more. It’s not easy. For example, there was one child who got really upset if I sang four verses. So on the fourth verse he ran off and went into a cupboard and started shouting. It is all part of the struggle.”

Ms Chan took over a café in Belsize Lane two years ago and named it after her son.

Oliver’s Café is a hive of creativity, with on-site theatre shows, music and Oliver’s art displayed across the walls.

An exhibition last month drew large crowds and many purchases, Ms Chan said. 

She has now produced a children’s music CD about the Amazon rainforest with her Brazilian music and art teacher friend, Ana Losekann.

They sing about the March of the Ants, Love Birds and the “Rainforest Lament”. 

“I think all people feel happy when they sing. But it is quite rare to get the opportunity,” says Caroline. 

“The CD is good to put on in a car on a drive somewhere. But we’re also hoping schools will be interested in it.”

• The KurumiKidz CD is being launched tonight (Thursday) at the Sir Richard Steeles pub in Haverstock Hill, Belsize Park.

For more information visit www.kurumikidz.com