Simon has a story to tell... but he is non-verbal

Simon has a story to tell, but he is non-verbal. His parents decided to tell his story through a film - his journey into free-diving.

Celebrating Autism Acceptance - Month of April, Pages Muscat Bookstore Madinat Sultan Qaboos presented the film - I Am Simon: The Call of the Elephants on Tuesday.

The film is based on a real-life story, presented to be shared with the autism community and the world at large. Simon's parents wanted to share Simon's story and the parents' perspective.

The story is of a young non-verbal autistic boy who amazingly taught himself free-diving. But the focus goes beyond showing the case as something extraordinary and presents the emotions experienced by the parents, as well as teaching about the fundamentals of life, compassion, love, kindness and the greatness in human beings' potential.

Viewers described it as a moving, inspirational, heartwarming and uplifting story.

Simon's parents, Juan Chavez and Maria Jimenez Chavez are both petroleum engineers and had moved to the Sultanate of Oman more than 10 years ago. They are very supportive of their child's development, but their journey was not that smooth, and thus, they made a documentary about him as a testimony to the world.

Soon they were on the project - they made every part of the documentary from direction, production, cinematography and music.

Hailing from Venezuela, Juan and Maria are parents of three children. Simon was diagnosed with Autism at three years of age.

"We moved to Scotland, where he attended special school when he was fours years old. When we moved to Oman, I decided to let go of the worry unconsciously and focused on my new role in the company," said Maria.

She recollected the special day, "One day, a Venezuelan swimming instructor asked us to teach Simon swimming. We were very concerned and rejected the request. A few months later, she came again and said, 'I really want to teach Simon how to swim.' We agreed, and to our surprise, the teacher came back to us saying: 'He is already swimming!'" This was when their lives took a new turning point. The story with swimming (which later on developed into diving) began.

A few years later, they wanted to share this story with the world. They realised that many films talked about Autism, what the autistic person feels and treatments, but few talked about the parent's perspective on bringing up an autistic child.

Juan, Simon's father, explained his son's method of learning free diving, "Simon learned very difficult techniques of breathing for diving by himself. How he learned, "I believe he is connected with his soul."

"He was guided. He was connected to nature. And you are only able to connect to nature when you quiet your mind. So I saw what he was doing, and I started to reproduce that. I wanted to learn from him. I realised that definitely when he is in water, he is meditating. That is one of the key things. When you stop overthinking, you can be connected with nature."

He added, "One of the things I have learned is to give him space. I getting involved with what he is doing. As a parent, you need to get involved with your kid. I said to myself - I need to learn what he likes to do. I need to be in his place and secure the area. And observe, observe and observe. Give place and time and you will be able to see things."

This is how Simon's mother likes to summarise,

"We need to silence our minds and let our hearts talk. That is how we will be great as human beings."

@lakshmioman