 My son is eight years old and is autistic. He is a very slow learner, has trouble focusing and communicating with others. Do you think that the martial arts can help him? I absolutely think that martial arts can help him. Now, I'm not speaking from someone that has experienced with someone on the spectrum, but a lot of the students that came through the school were on the spectrum. On the varying degrees, you have very high functioning students and we had a few that were not very well functioning at all and there's a great degree of challenges among them, but I definitely saw a difference in most of them. I mean, what's your opinion that do you believe that martial arts can help him on the spectrum? Well, I have both of my girls are on the spectrum at some point. My oldest is very high functioning, but I absolutely totally agree with it. Now, I've tried, got my girls interested into martial arts many times and both of them are not interested in martial arts. They're interested into lies and different things, but the real trick from going through and dealing with all the different therapies and all the different ways to handle it is it depends on how your kid is and how your kid is on the spectrum. I think martial arts can help them, but one, you cannot force your kid to take martial arts. They have to have an interest in it, especially if they're on the spectrum because the worst thing to do is force, if you force someone into something that they're not ready for, even though you know it will benefit them, it can have the, you know, when they're on the spectrum, it can really have a more dramatic effect. It's much more, you know, the little setbacks can be dramatic. You know, for us, you know, oh, someone, you know, you did something wrong, people laughed, it's not a big deal. It upsets you for, I think, but the end of class, it's over. For them, it can haunt them for months. There's sometimes they will bring things up that you're, you know, years later. So you have to be careful. So you have to make sure that they have an interest in it. Also, too, is there's, you know, in our area, which we're lucky, there's a lot of people that actually will have just special classes that will be just for autistic kids that are martial arts or dancing or singing that are just them. And what's great about that, especially if your kids are a little bit lower on the spectrum as they kind of say, or not as high functioning, that way, they're surrounded by their peers. Now the thing, though, is also what's beneficial to that is if you have, let's say, if your kid's more on the higher spectrum and you go to a more high functioning, sorry, and you go to the place that where it's caters to it. It's actually good for them to see that, you know, there's other people out there that are struggling with issues that they can understand. And also, too, is your now inspiration for the other kids that they can say, hey, you know, this kid is doing something and, you know, he overcompensated or she overcompensated through their, you know, through their problems. And it's actually a big help because, you know, it doesn't matter what you say sometimes. It's what they see and they'll make connections and you'll say something 50 million times into, you know, into your blue in the face, and they'll just see one or the kid do the thing and they'd be like, oh, that's it. I get it. That's okay. All right. That's what you're supposed to do. And that's a huge thing. But the thing that actually I think that, I mean, like my oldest, which I'm dying to, a lot of times on the spectrum, they have what they have lack spatial awareness. Like, she walks into doors. She walks into walls. She just, she and, and having martial art to actually start to teach them to learn where they are in space and learn their body and where, because they actually even say that it's a sense to actually know where your hands, your feet are in space and actually have them actually learn to learn that is a huge help. So like one of the things we actually do with, with, with our girls was actually set up little obstacle courses in our house and we would have them run through the obstacle course to teach them. And I had tried to teach them martial arts and they learned it for a little while. But it's just not their interest. And actually, it's interesting because my youngest, she has a huge aggressive side to her. She's confused. Like I said, in her, the best way to describe it, it's kind of like she suffers, you know, for no apparent reason from post traumatic stress order. Like all of a sudden it just clicks off and she's just at the high end. But to have her a couple of times to teach from our charts, she actually feels safer with it. She actually feels in connection and more control. She doesn't feel as danger all the time. So the benefits, like I said, it helps everybody. I can't, I just, it's hardly suggested. I don't care if you're in a wheelchair or if you're six, you know, six years old or 60s years old, one legged, blind in a wheelchair. I think it has benefits to everybody. And then Tracy brought up to, she said, and this is a great segue here. She says the kids kicking cancer program seems to be good for sick kids. I wonder if it would help with the spectrum disorders. So if you're just coming into the chat now, we are partnered with the Hero Circle Kids Kicking Cancer. It's a fantastic program. They are an organization that teaches all over the world and what they do is they teach martial arts programs to children who are fighting cancer, sickle cell disease, organ transplants, whatever their ailments are, but they use the martial arts as a way to cope with their pain. They have a very, very, very high success rate with pain management where the kids don't need the medication. And it also helps them process emotional distress. They've seen an 80% decline in emotional distress for not just them, but their families, their siblings as well. So it's a fantastic program. We do have a donation button. We're trying to raise money for them. I've been talking to them for a while. They are an excellent, excellent program. And as far as, you know, using the martial arts for something, for something good and helping other people, I can't think of an organization that's better than this. So if you guys want to, there's a donate button on the side or any super chance to go towards that. But I think Tracy brings up an excellent point, though, if we can use the martial arts to teach kids the mental side of dealing with something as devastating as cancer and emotional distress and management, why can't that be applied to other conditions as well, whether it be a spectrum or any other disability? I mean, just to answer the question in general, I think absolutely the martial arts is a fantastic way or could be a fantastic solution for anyone on the spectrum to hopefully get some footing or some developmental skills or whatever they might need to kind of help break their barriers. Oh, yeah. I mean, there's no, to me, there's no doubt in my mind. If you, if you're, if your kid, you know, is on the spectrum, but shows any inkling into martial arts, I would highly invest into it, you know, and spend the time and spend the energy to get him into it, because it only is going to help him directly. It just, even if they get that one thing that they like, you know, and that's the thing that keeps him going. And martial art is, I think, excellent for them in that sense. But if your kids on the spectrum, don't just throw them in a martial art class. I just just don't do that, just, you know, unless they're ready for it. If they're not ready for it, you know, try, yeah, try it out smaller, you know, and definitely, yeah. Me with the instructor, too, tell them what the challenges are so they know what they're going in with and they can prepare themselves, too. Yeah, that, that actually is a huge recommendation. I, yeah, you can't be shy about it. You can't be like, oh, you know, I don't want to tell anyone when my kid is on the spectrum. Oh, you have to be, you know, straight up for this, my kids on the spectrum, you be, most people are willing to help you and help your kid out, but they need to know it's, it's when it's out of right, you know, you know, out of the norm that they're not used to it, that it becomes a huge problem. You know, but if they're expecting it and you tell them, you know, sit down and tell them, you know, they might get upset over this, they might cry over this, they might need, you know, my oldest, she, she, like, she gets it where things bother her, but you can't confront her on it, just give her her space, she'll go off in the corner, she'll be there, she might even cry a little bit for like five minutes to herself, and then she gets right back in and get, and goes, goes into it. So, you know, those are the things, if you tell the teacher, be like, if she gets, you know, they get over upset and just let them go off in the corner, you know, then they, they understand it. They know what's going on, and they're not going to push them in the wrong way. That's a huge, huge, huge thing. For those who are interested, we did do an episode looking at a study that was done with the martial arts. They did a program where they tested executive function for kids that were on the spectrum before and after doing some martial arts classes, a series of classes, and they did find an elevated performance in the executive function. So, what we do is after we're done with the stream, I'm going to add that link down below in the description, because if you guys haven't seen that yet, I think it's a great study. And it's definitely one I want to come back to, because I think that could be a whole topic on itself. So, this clip is an excerpt from one of our recent Art of Wendojo live episodes in which we talked about the martial arts and whether or not they should be allowed or taught in the prison system. Now, I'm going to challenge you on this topic right here on your beliefs. Do you believe that the martial arts should be taught or should not be taught? We look at it from both angles. So, you tell me what you think. Should the martial arts be allowed in prison?