Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Autism Issues In Asian Culture (Jason Hsieh Interview)

Transcript

Autism Issues In Asian Culture (Jason Hsieh Interview) · Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD

• 0:00
  Okay, so we're back with another Saturday live.
• 0:08
  Interview, this time. I'm interviewing a new guest
• 0:11
  that probably I hadn't come across this person.
• 0:14
  And I had someone reach out from your team.
• 0:16
  I think I might be yourself. This is a, this is Jason.
• 0:20
  John introduce yourself. Tell Freddy like what you do?
• 0:22
  And that'll be awesome for sure. My name is Jason.
• 0:26
  I'm founder of lucky kid, but father I have three kids.
• 0:31
  My oldest is 10. This he was down our swords with
• 0:35
  autism and ADHD back. When he was 3.
• 0:39
  And he got his diagnosis. Wow!
• 0:41
  Me and my wife were living in Japan back.
• 0:43
  Then my wife's happen, Iowa, and unfortunately most The Asian
• 0:51
  country. Japan included.
• 0:53
  There's a huge stigma around, mental disabilities, and mental
• 0:56
  disorders. So we were really having a
• 0:58
  really hard time and money resources in Serbia opportunity
• 1:01
  for our son. So we decided to move to United
• 1:04
  States for years after. See, the diagnosis after we move
• 1:09
  to you this day. We will consider connecting with
• 1:12
  other family. That also have was so nice, and
• 1:15
  we realized, there's still a gap in the communities in us and we
• 1:20
  Did it? To create a company that can
• 1:24
  help by designing and creating products that can help our son
• 1:28
  and other kids, just like our sun and that was the mission
• 1:31
  behind our companies and our core mission is to empower
• 1:34
  support and educate all kids of their ability so they can live a
• 1:39
  brighter future. Wow.
• 1:42
  I mean, that's a lot of stuff. That's a lot to take in, in a
• 1:45
  sentence and its really, really good because I feel like, you
• 1:49
  know, advocacy on any From like, you know, however, we do.
• 1:54
  Advocacy, always has to be done like Grassroots, right?
• 1:57
  Because you know, governments and things like that.
• 2:00
  They're always the last people to Cotton On To, Where help is
• 2:03
  needed. I feel like it's always like the
• 2:05
  troops boots on the floor, you notice that it's the groundwork
• 2:07
  done by parents and Advocates and I think that's a beautiful
• 2:10
  thing because it's raw compassion for something that
• 2:13
  really does need help. And I think that's amazing.
• 2:15
  So thank you for doing what you do.
• 2:17
  You know, it's something cool story to share.
• 2:20
  Ashley is our personal. So while we are living in Japan,
• 2:23
  we live in Tokyo, one of the largest metropolitan area.
• 2:26
  You can imagine have more population than almost city of
• 2:29
  New York, but we can only find two serapis Center for our son
• 2:34
  to go to. That's not a good thing to be in
• 2:37
  when you have kids with special needs and there's only two
• 2:39
  places, you can take your kids to border in out of the entire
• 2:43
  entire metro area that was statues.
• 2:45
  Kind of show you how lack of opportunities and lack of
• 2:48
  resources and of course that was many years back, maybe the
• 2:51
  situation. Improved since then hopefully
• 2:54
  but that was how lack of resources that was in Japan.
• 2:58
  So why is the why is the the kind of the the culture of Japan
• 3:07
  or a culture of Asia? Why does Asian not see these
• 3:11
  conditions as a Paramount? Kind of healthcare problem or a
• 3:14
  healthcare issue? It's all going back to the
• 3:17
  culture and the mindset behind it.
• 3:20
  There's a huge stigma around. Mental disability, people don't
• 3:23
  like to talk about it. People don't want to admit that
• 3:26
  some things went wrong. And you happened to me,
• 3:28
  personally, when I first heard that diagnosis from my wife, I
• 3:32
  was in the denial phase for the first six months, because none
• 3:36
  of my relative. None of my siblings, my parents,
• 3:39
  anyone. I know have autism.
• 3:41
  So like this couldn't happen to my son because I don't see
• 3:45
  anything wrong with him and that that's like a internal conflict
• 3:50
  that I have for you myself. The first six months and I think
• 3:54
  that's also very common even for people, that's not fun Asia.
• 3:57
  But for the people in hls, even I think that sense of conflict
• 4:01
  and that sense of refusal to assign is even greater and
• 4:06
  people tend to hide it even. So you can know, obviously my
• 4:10
  son was different, but I don't want a step and I want to kind
• 4:13
  of just cover it up and put that nothing is wrong with ya.
• 4:17
  So, how like, do you do any Outreach programs in Japan or in
• 4:21
  Asia? Asia in general, do you do much
• 4:24
  work there or is it more like us based now?
• 4:28
  Right now is really US base, but my long-term vision for the
• 4:31
  company. I mean, the company started back
• 4:33
  in 2017. So we have been doing this for a
• 4:36
  few years now, but we are definitely not quite there yet.
• 4:39
  But my long-term vision is able to reach out back to the family,
• 4:43
  back in Asia, like Japan Taiwan, maybe China and really help the
• 4:46
  family out there, but I think we need to be stronger here.
• 4:50
  In u.s. First before we can do a Global
• 4:53
  Outreach. Yeah, of course, you need to
• 4:54
  have like a founding strong Foundation base, right?
• 4:57
  Right? And I think like, you know, what
• 4:58
  you're doing is great. And I think so many people are
• 5:00
  going to benefit from it. And I think, you know, one of
• 5:02
  the things is interesting about like autism, as well is, it's
• 5:06
  always portrayed. Like, when you, when you think
• 5:08
  stereotypical autism, they'll always like Hollywood in the
• 5:11
  media. Always give you like a white
• 5:13
  male, you know? Me like this could occasion male
• 5:17
  with like Asperger's or something.
• 5:19
  It's never like the Asian kid. It's never, you know, like the
• 5:22
  the I don't know the Latino girl.
• 5:24
  Like it's always this white guy thing and that really You know,
• 5:27
  because for a long time, people didn't even think that like,
• 5:31
  women could be on the Autism Spectrum, which is really
• 5:33
  frustrating for girls, obviously, so it's nice to see
• 5:36
  that, you know, someone with Asian Heritage is kind of like
• 5:40
  doing something. It just bringing awareness to
• 5:42
  that Community because I think the more that you have people
• 5:46
  like, you know, Hollywood pushing the whole Caucasian
• 5:51
  image of autism in men, I think people kind of again, like you
• 5:56
  said in the cultures, you know, you look at Asia culture is our
• 5:58
  culture. They're not surrounded by like
• 6:01
  anything that they can relate to, you know, nobody's looking
• 6:03
  at a movie and seeing an Asian kid on the Spectrum saying, oh,
• 6:06
  I relate to that. You know, I'm a, I'm an Asian
• 6:08
  family member and you know, I mean, so I think what you're
• 6:11
  doing is super important. So, tell us about.
• 6:13
  So what does tell us about some of the work that you do them?
• 6:17
  So one of our biggest work is has been ongoing collaboration
• 6:21
  with one of the largest nonprofit organization called
• 6:24
  culture, City culture with K in the beginning.
• 6:28
  So they are an international nonprofit organization.
• 6:30
  They have program and locations in both us, UK Canada and
• 6:36
  Australia. And one of the biggest program
• 6:38
  we have is called sensory inclusive initiative.
• 6:41
  You can look it up, what they do is they have over a scene right
• 6:45
  now, 500, okay. Age cannot participate in this
• 6:47
  program. Location include MBA stadiums,
• 6:51
  baseball, Arenas and football, Arenas zoos aquariums in Newport
• 6:57
  and cruise line and what they'll go into those location and they
• 7:00
  will do three things for each of us location first, they'll do
• 7:03
  staff training. So the staff is aware of the
• 7:05
  sensory challenges that the family with kids with special
• 7:08
  needs will face either ADHD autism sort of sensory
• 7:12
  processing disorder. Second.
• 7:14
  They will provide a whole bunch of different sensory.
• 7:16
  Caught. I was answering the tool for
• 7:18
  free for the families that attend.
• 7:20
  Those Arenas were those events the tool include they called
• 7:24
  sensory bag. So, inside the sensory bags, you
• 7:26
  have noise, canceling, headphones, fidget toys.
• 7:29
  And the weighted blanket that we designed for the nonprofit
• 7:32
  organization that they are using in their program.
• 7:35
  And last, but not least. They will also help those select
• 7:38
  the location to create and design and sensory room in
• 7:41
  essentially is a quiet and safe space for the family to go to in
• 7:45
  case the case. Having a meltdown will having a
• 7:47
  tantrum, which is pretty common for the case that have sensory
• 7:50
  issues. If you want to take the kids to
• 7:52
  an NBA game, is a lot of, like, a lot of sound, a lot of noises
• 7:56
  you could lead to a meltdown. So that's what that they are
• 7:59
  program. Do and what our my company do,
• 8:03
  is, we collaborate with cultural City?
• 8:05
  And we design products for them to use in their program.
• 8:08
  And one of the pro product, we design is actually a writable
• 8:12
  weighted blanket that the kids can write on the weighted
• 8:15
  blanket using a water pan. So it's an interactive way to
• 8:17
  break in cool after this. And we designed this product
• 8:21
  with cultural cities programming in mind.
• 8:23
  So it's portable is small and kids can ride on it.
• 8:27
  Dude. I would love to see one of you
• 8:28
  have to send me some pictures of this.
• 8:30
  I'd love to see one. I can.
• 8:32
  Do you want actually though? You can?
• 8:34
  Yeah, I guess if you want. Yeah, totally UK yet, but I can
• 8:38
  definitely ship you a sample. So I would love to and anybody
• 8:41
  watching and listening right now.
• 8:42
  I'll definitely to review this is this product so I can show
• 8:45
  everybody what I just sounds. Double.
• 8:46
  So yeah, it's somewhere over and I'll show everybody.
• 8:49
  You know, is interesting when you were saying about what you
• 8:51
  did a couple of months ago. I interviewed a disabled.
• 8:55
  It was like a disability or disabled partnership program
• 9:00
  coordinator for a soccer stadium here in Wales in the United
• 9:04
  Kingdom called goodness, that the wrexham football club and
• 9:09
  funny enough. They just been bought out by
• 9:10
  Ryan Reynolds and another guy who's in American TV show called
• 9:15
  Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Fear something.
• 9:17
  So the these two movie stars bought my like local football
• 9:20
  stadium solid Stadium, but she the reason I had around is
• 9:25
  because they have what you just described exactly like that in
• 9:29
  there stating. They have like this bag that
• 9:30
  they give the parent when they come.
• 9:31
  They're so they may be part of this program.
• 9:33
  I don't know if they are. I can't remember what she said,
• 9:36
  the specifically about it, but I know they do exactly what you
• 9:38
  just said. They have sensory room like a
• 9:41
  sensory toolkit soon as you get there with blankets and there's
• 9:44
  something else is I think they have like like Fastpass areas
• 9:47
  that you can get in. It's like a, it's like an Autism
• 9:49
  friendly soccer stadium. I was cool.
• 9:53
  Yeah, it might be something similar and I know the cultural
• 9:56
  studies program has been around for a while that some other
• 9:58
  nonprofit also tried to do a similar program.
• 10:00
  But I think cultures it is one of the oldest one and they have
• 10:03
  the most location. Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me.
• 10:06
  If he was the same one. I'd be really interested.
• 10:07
  Check that out because they were really good.
• 10:09
  And to me, it was like, well, it was, like, stay out like what
• 10:12
  they did. And the interesting thing is
• 10:13
  they raised to transform their Stadium into autism, friendly,
• 10:19
  right? They raised all the money
• 10:21
  themselves like charity work. It's like the fans and the and
• 10:24
  the members raise that money. Oh, yeah, I could hear about
• 10:27
  culture City because I know they are found.
• 10:29
  He's a good friend of mine. His name is Julian.
• 10:31
  He is also found Asia. As in his found Malaysia.
• 10:34
  The reason why he started his nonprofit is because he also
• 10:37
  have a son with autism and he also faced a lot of the stigma
• 10:42
  just being Asians and also facing a lot of difficult.
• 10:46
  So my story actually, is very similar to his because we both
• 10:50
  start difficult being a different organization because
• 10:52
  Our personal experience with our families and the struggle that
• 10:55
  we went through. We just create something that
• 10:58
  can help like other families like ours.
• 11:01
  So like I said, he's definitely, they are organization.
• 11:05
  Have grown so much over the years and I would definitely
• 11:09
  encourage all the listening to check out their nonprofit
• 11:12
  organization as well. So, so, okay.
• 11:14
  So here's a question and So for anybody who is like any Asian
• 11:18
  families watching this and listening right now, what would
• 11:20
  you say is the best resources they can?
• 11:22
  Can get for support because I'm guessing from my point of view.
• 11:25
  Is that like if I was, you know, if I was an agent that with a,
• 11:28
  you know, cystic kid, I'd be like, you know, my family would
• 11:32
  kind of be a bit like, put off or or not really understanding
• 11:35
  it. Culturally wise, like where I
• 11:37
  would feel quite alone. Right?
• 11:38
  So I'm guessing that a lot of like Asian parents would feel
• 11:40
  quite alone. So where would you say the best
• 11:42
  place to start is? I think it's trying to join one
• 11:46
  of the support group. You can find.
• 11:48
  Unfortunately, there's no like Asian parents, obstetric,
• 11:51
  support group. Maybe that's a good idea for a
• 11:53
  group but that's different seppuku that on Facebook.
• 11:57
  We actually used to run out on support group.
• 11:59
  But since covid we have to shut it down because of the we have
• 12:03
  very limited staff after covid. So but we used to run a about
• 12:08
  3,000 parents in our parents approval.
• 12:10
  When he was after we have, unfortunately, we To shut it
• 12:14
  down last year because everything that was going on.
• 12:16
  It was just a little bit too much for us to keep on
• 12:19
  supporting the group that has been something.
• 12:21
  That's very dear to my heart to keep the support group running,
• 12:25
  but that's still a lot of other. I believe you.
• 12:28
  Actually, you yourself also have a support group on Facebook that
• 12:31
  people can join but one of the first thing is trying to connect
• 12:35
  with other families that also have almost identical or similar
• 12:38
  issues because we always we already been there and done
• 12:42
  that. I mean my son is Right.
• 12:44
  Housing? Is he in fourth grade, but
• 12:46
  there's some parent that already have a similar issue, but in
• 12:48
  their case is already going to college and each base.
• 12:52
  You will face different issue. Like right now, my son biggest
• 12:55
  issues is reborn learning because everyone's doing Romola
• 12:58
  couldn't focus. The remote learning environment
• 13:00
  because of not just autism. But he also have ADHD is almost
• 13:04
  impossible for him to focus staring at a screen for like
• 13:07
  five hours straight. So it's a very difficult
• 13:10
  situation to by talking to other family.
• 13:12
  That would be beans too. Ooh, and maybe they have tried a
• 13:16
  lot of different solutions. That's where you can exchange a
• 13:18
  lot of the good idea and and also like a way to kind of share
• 13:22
  different inside. Yeah.
• 13:24
  I definitely think you're 100% right?
• 13:26
  You know, like Facebook is probably the best place to go
• 13:29
  for that because, you know that like, you know, from people who
• 13:32
  are in your kind of like demographic are going to be
• 13:35
  there, you know, they're going like family members and we mums,
• 13:36
  and dads, and there's just so many good resources on Facebook.
• 13:40
  I think it's, it's really overlooked by a lot of people.
• 13:42
  It's like, the last thing we think about Is she going to
• 13:44
  support group on Facebook? You know, also, I think one more
• 13:48
  thing is because we also run this program for the past 22
• 13:51
  years, not all support group is very positive.
• 13:53
  So we try to select the one that's actually positive.
• 13:56
  That's when we used to run our group.
• 13:58
  One of our biggest rule is no negativity at all because we
• 14:01
  already have enough - Duty with all the news that's going on,
• 14:05
  all the hatred of the racism. You don't want to have anymore -
• 14:09
  crazy, right? So yeah.
• 14:10
  Hi to make sure you can join the group that is all about
• 14:13
  positivity. And try to it's all about
• 14:15
  building people up, instead of pushing people down.
• 14:18
  That's very, very important when you are selecting the group, so,
• 14:21
  don't just join the group for this because you want to join
• 14:24
  the group. Definitely kind of check out the
• 14:25
  atmosphere of the posts that people are posting and trying to
• 14:29
  kind of filter you filter out. Because the last thing you want
• 14:32
  to want to do is to add more stress to your life, by joining
• 14:35
  a group that people are talking bad to each other.
• 14:38
  So yeah. Yeah definitely did because
• 14:40
  like, yeah, I totally agree, you know, is there's so much there's
• 14:43
  so much negativity out. Only kind of screwy from it.
• 14:45
  So what kind of stuff are you working on right now?
• 14:48
  Like, what's your, what are you currently involved with?
• 14:50
  Like projectwise or even just in planning stages?
• 14:53
  Where are you planning for? Yeah, so one of our biggest
• 14:56
  project this year, we have a paid membership is called
• 15:00
  sensory Adventure Club is the $10 a month membership that we
• 15:03
  design with occupational. Therapists that he's also a good
• 15:07
  friend of mine. He owned a company called since
• 15:09
  we've seen this. So his name is Matt and he have
• 15:13
  a background of being a professional therapist, and a
• 15:16
  personal trainer, and a special education teacher.
• 15:19
  So he's combining all his different expertise and he
• 15:22
  create videos and different trainings for parents of.
• 15:25
  Actually fitness exercise that you can do with your kids that
• 15:29
  will help them with their sensory issues.
• 15:31
  So it's like a very unique program that we had kind of
• 15:34
  Designing and we already have the program and since last year,
• 15:38
  but with covid we didn't have a lot of time to make the program
• 15:42
  better. So this is going to be one of my
• 15:44
  focus this year to make the program.
• 15:46
  The best night we can be and try to help as many parents that we
• 15:50
  can be with only ten dollars a month.
• 15:51
  I think it's really affordable. And yeah, seen that skill work
• 15:55
  to do. You to really get the word out
• 15:56
  there that this kind of program actually exist.
• 15:59
  Because a lot of people doesn't really associate their physical
• 16:04
  activities, were, like Fitness to a lot of the symptoms that
• 16:07
  they are cases have. But actually is hungry.
• 16:09
  It's unrelated. Yeah, okay, perception right.
• 16:12
  Not doing all the correct scenes.
• 16:16
  They will lead to all kinds of behavior issue because with the
• 16:19
  kids being a 24/7, you see like the the behaviors you just going
• 16:23
  on the roof right now. Yeah, of Because Lucas did is
• 16:26
  really funny because I launched last year.
• 16:29
  I launched my membership website too.
• 16:31
  So I actually have a membership website going where I do like
• 16:34
  monthly little courses. Their monthly cost is in there.
• 16:36
  And I kind of do like, monthly live group sessions where I
• 16:39
  could do, like, one on one coaching with people, and that's
• 16:41
  really cool. So, what I'll do is for people
• 16:43
  listening, the website link, which is level of autism dotnet
• 16:48
  will be in the show notes. And what is the website link for
• 16:51
  your membership? If we want to check it out?
• 16:53
  Are they can check it out. Fun.
• 16:55
  Our main website is Lackey kit.com laki Ki D.
• 17:00
  They can find in English. Oh, no, and we will try to
• 17:03
  update your website, so we can see this more obvious is when I
• 17:05
  was kind of hard to find, so we're okay, make it more.
• 17:08
  Sure. I because I because I think
• 17:09
  like, I just love membership websites, you know,
• 17:11
  subscriptions because I feel you get more value from it.
• 17:14
  And I think that like, parents will definitely be looking for
• 17:17
  stuff. You know, that's why I started
• 17:18
  my membership site because there was so many people ask me so
• 17:20
  many questions all the time. I was like, well, how do I help
• 17:22
  people? You know, so I think that Great
• 17:25
  thing. And it's a great project to do.
• 17:27
  So, I'll also leave a link for everything we're talking about
• 17:29
  in the show notes, and in the description of this video, if
• 17:31
  you want to check it out on Facebook and YouTube as well.
• 17:34
  Okay. So before we wrap it up, how can
• 17:36
  people contact you, if they want to reach out to you?
• 17:39
  What's the best way to contact you?
• 17:42
  They can just check out. Our website was just add, Lackey
• 17:45
  kit.com where they can find those on all the different
• 17:48
  social media Network. And we also offer a lot of
• 17:52
  things for free. Right now.
• 17:54
  We are giving away like a freak. One of the main topic right now
• 17:59
  is calm down Corner because everyone staying at home.
• 18:02
  We have a whole very in-depth article on how to create your
• 18:05
  own countdown corner for free. They can check out that guy on
• 18:08
  our on our website and we have some free time.
• 18:12
  Both for parents were caregiver that they can print out which is
• 18:15
  like an emotional things like different emotional sticker,
• 18:18
  will chart that the parents can use to teach the kids about
• 18:22
  different emotions. So they can identify the
• 18:24
  emotion, they are having either. Frustration hangars, were they
• 18:28
  happy and excited that will help them to to regulate their
• 18:31
  emotions. So that's one of the education
• 18:34
  piece that we also try to do. We do actually amongst the video
• 18:38
  blog as well that we partner with math.
• 18:41
  The And I just mentioned earlier, if he'd actually is a
• 18:44
  video about the about the topics, like he did a ten-minute
• 18:47
  video about how to create a calm down codon and he go in-depth on
• 18:51
  all the things that you need to keep kind of while you're trying
• 18:54
  to create the countdown Corner in your house.
• 18:56
  So that's one of the education Focus while trying to push this
• 18:59
  year to kind of educate. The caregiver on different topic
• 19:04
  every single month. That's amazing.
• 19:06
  You guys seem like you're absolutely like busy running
• 19:09
  lots of content on my love it. So I will leave Linkage.
• 19:12
  It. Be sure to email me everything
• 19:13
  that you spoken about it, like, link wise to me.
• 19:16
  And then what I'll do is I'll add it into these, the show
• 19:18
  notes and in the description this video.
• 19:19
  So everybody who wants to contact organizational or check
• 19:22
  out what anything we talked about, they can do so, okay, so
• 19:25
  which is about time right now. Here's anything you want to like
• 19:28
  add to this interview before I wrap it up.
• 19:33
  I think I just want to give a word of encouragement is always
• 19:36
  going to be light at the end of the tunnel like me and my
• 19:40
  family. We went to a lot of things stuff
• 19:42
  at the mice. I started a business back in
• 19:44
  2017. Our daughter actually got
• 19:47
  diagnosed with leukemia right after I spent a few months after
• 19:51
  I started the business. So it was a very very tough time
• 19:55
  for me with my son being autism, have autism and my daughter have
• 19:59
  leukemia which is born of blood cancer.
• 20:02
  Yeah, that was like a half year chemotherapy treatment, but I
• 20:06
  think right now she's a huge is finished or her Sarah P.
• 20:09
  Last year though. She's out of it.
• 20:12
  But that was a time where it was very, very stressful for my
• 20:17
  entire families and everyone involved with everything that's
• 20:20
  going on. But I just want to give a word
• 20:22
  of encouragement for the people. That's actually right now
• 20:25
  because the covid everything that's going on.
• 20:26
  That's facing a lot of stress. That's always going to be a late
• 20:29
  light at the end of the tunnel. If you can just stick to it, you
• 20:34
  won't you everything will turn out to be.
• 20:36
  Okay. So you turned out to be a fine
• 20:38
  with book with my family, good. Well, you know, Speedy
• 20:42
  recovering, God bless. I think it's definitely things I
• 20:45
  should say for that. And wow, I mean, that is a
• 20:48
  difficult thing to deal with and yeah, you're absolutely right.
• 20:51
  I think, you know, there's always like that little girl,
• 20:53
  stay positive, keep the faith and just do what you do, man.
• 20:56
  Keep going. Awesome.
• 20:57
  Okay. Thank you so much Jason.
• 20:59
  Hey guys. Thank you so much for listening
• 21:00
  to this podcast if you haven't already.
• 21:01
  We share this with anybody and everyone who you think can get
• 21:03
  some benefit from it, and also I know a bunch of you guys who
• 21:06
  haven't already, subscribe to this podcast, but listen, so,
• 21:08
  please go over and subscribe to it now, so you don't miss an
• 21:10
  episode. Also from hit me up on Twitter.
• 21:12
  It's at the aspie world the th e ask me spie and then World wo
• 21:18
  rld so that as be World. Alright guys.
• 21:21
  Thanks.