Reference for Iris

5.5.07




To Whom It May Concern,

This is a letter of recomendation concerning Iris Taribo Ramon who has worked at “Memory Gardens Autistic Sculpture Project” for the last three years at the Sunday Youth Club.

Iris has a capacity to learn on the job through the dynamic interplay that she supports and encourages between herself and autistic children who are mainly non-verbal. In this job you must be able to combine an indepth focus in relation to the needs, signals and interests of individual young children with an awareness of what is happening in the entire space; the general tone and mood of all the children and which of the co-workers or other children may at any moment need support.

Working at the Garden Project in this fluid and changeable environment is a highly creative process. Iris with her knowledge and practical involvement in the visual arts, has a strong sense and appreciation of the sheer enjoyment of working and creating moments of contact out of forms which she knows to be fluid and sculptural.

Whether she is making a mobile out of bark and beads for a child who likes to flick things and see them move, or creating a dweling out of bricks and wood for a child who likes to be in the middle of things and then knock down that structure, she adapts her interaction according to the motion of the child at that moment.

I feel that Iris has learnt this way of adaptation very fast- a learning style which can for some people be a challenge to their own sense of planning and preferance for fixed or stable structures. By working with dynamic processes Iris has learnt more deeply about these children and the creative possibilities of Autism then she ever could from books alone. By seeing how things change she has learnt about the valued connection that stays the same and grows from week to week and year to year.

What I feel has been her strongest motivational force is her open heartedness; simply a wish to create links and learn. An openness which allows her to keep challenging her own belief system and to change where this allows the link to continue and deepen.

I have come to see Iris as a real asset to this small Garden project. I will truly miss her presence at the Garden if she should be successful in her application to your college. However I am convinced that such training will deepen what is already a strong potential and comitment in this field of work.



Yours Sincerely,



Ruth Solomon B.A

Co-ordinator

Memory Gardens