RE:Dissertation on Geographies of Aspergers & (Re)Shaping of Public Spaces

[shonad09]

Dear All,

 

I am a year 3 Human Geography student at the University of Strathclyde. At the moment I am designing my dissertation proposal. I hope to do my dissertation on the Geographies of ASD and the making of space and (re)shaping of public places. I also plan to investigate the urban landscape and the relationship individuals with ASD have with it.

 

As part of my investigation I am linking up with planning technicians, urban developers and designers in the hope that my dissertation may also offer a proposal for changes to the urban city that will allow those with ASD to navigate public spaces with more ease. I would also like to present proposals for changes within workplaces that could easily be employed to alleviate some of the issues adults with ASD face everyday within their work environments.

 

I would love the opportunity to speak with individuals in Glasgow and surrounding areas (over 18 years of age) who either have ASD, carers, professionals and friends. I would be most grateful if you could pass my request on to members or advise me of those who may be interested in participating with my research.

 

It may help to know I myself have two sons aged 5 & 8 who both have Aspergers, hence my interest and passion for this topic. I have experience of their difficulties coping with particular public spaces. It may also help to know that I am a 'mature student' in my late thirties and therefore understand the sensitivity required.

 

Should you be interested in speaking with me I would be most grateful and can forward confirmation from the University as to who I am and my dissertation.

 

Please feel free to contact me either through the forum or by personal email at shona.davidson.100@strath.ac.uk

 

Kind Regards,

 

Shona

Edited February 16, 2012 by shonad09

[LancsLad]

Firstly good luck with your disertation proposal Shona.

 

Unfortunatly I am not in Glasgow and so might be too far away to play a direct role in your work which really sounds interesting. A couple of years ago I completed a postgraduate course in Landscape Architecture at The University of Sheffield. One of our final year modules was involved with looking at the Experiential Urban Landscape. The module was run by Kevin Thwaites and Ian Simkins who have produced an excellent book the title being 'Experiential Landscape, an approach to people, place and space'. The core of the book is a mapping technique which looks at social imagebility ande interaction, restorative spaces along with visual and auditory experiences. As part of the module we were involved with going out in groups and pairs mapping exisitng urban environments. What I found really interesting was that as someone with AS my experiences and my ability to map areas was different I believe to other NT students. I was far more sensitive to my environment and as such would say far more aware of it from a strategic level of processing information about my surroundings partly as a safety response.

 

The book is not a difficult read for its target audience, appologies if you have come across it before, it might provide a recognised and respected means of allowing people to quantify their urban experiences in a comparable format alongside outher important methods such as interviews, just a thought. When we did the module I was already commited to my dissertation and had yet to recieve my diagnosis for AS which was just around the corner. As such I could see massive scope for making connections between the two areas which at the time I found frustrating.

 

If you have a bit of time possibly take a look, I believe Kevin Thwaites is still at Sheffield he is a very approachable guy if you can pin him down, easier said than done, again good luck with the dissertation it sounds really interesting and a valuable contribution to the area, if you have a problem I suspect it will be fitting it into the framework of a degree structure as there is massive scope here at a posgraduate and PHD level.

[shonad09]

Hi LancsLad,

 

Firstly thank you so much for your response and best wishes. You have provided me with some incredible information for which I am extremely thankful.

 

I have never came across the book by Simkins and Thwaites, but, I will most definitely be searching it out in our library now. It sounds very interesting. I will also try tracking Kevin down, if successful will pop off a wee email.

 

Thank you again for your help.

 

Best Wishes,

S

[LancsLad]

Glad to help, didn't know if I would be treading on feet sort of thing.

 

What I found really interesting was that when we went out and mapped areas NT very much saw them as functional places. A coffe shop was simply a place for social interaction. A park was a restorative area. Thresholds would be door and entrances between public and private environments. On their maps there would be little in the way of sensorary experiences.

 

In contrast as someone with AS I would have fewer places of social interaction, as I would look at a coffee shop and see individuals who were not really interacting, but there would sensory overload through smells and flashing neon lights etc... In similar ways i would have to get further into a park and get away from the road noise and off the main footpaths before I would recognise areas of emotional restoration. Thresholds for me were things like the kerb on a pavement or changes in surface treatment because they felt different through my trainers. Traffic lights and junctions had massive sensorary influences due to things like air brakes on lorries and buses. I could go on and on......

 

The experience of the module left me with a clearer understanding of the fact that what I experience is possibly not what other NT's might get out of a space. I think it is possible for me to come to this area from two perspectives as a designer i.e. potential shaper of space.

 

The first area is to see autism in all its forms as a disability and as such we should do what we can to minimise environmental impacts where we can because they can have a debilatating impact on certain individuals. In this way I wish my local Asda wouldn't pump out artifical bread smells from the air conditioning in its entrance area as it makes me feel sick. I could say the same about low key flashing lights on burgular alarms on my street which put a pulsating red glow on my bedroom celing and make sleep difficult.

 

The second perspective is that individuals with ASD will see the world very differently and that this should be used by society as a positive. Personally I think I have a personality and gentic make up which make me a very strong visual learner, my AS is then like turning up the intensity on this ten fold. The result is that at times I can become overwhelmed by environments easily at others I can see them in the most amazing detail. This I see as a real gift and one for which I would gladly exchange the downsides of my condition for.

 

I have always found it very hard to put my finger on this and explain it to NT's. Heres one example. I can remeber being asked by a counselor if I had a good walk to her office. I said yes I had seen two really interesting bumble bees on the way down. She asked me why they were interesting. I then explained one had a conventional patternation but the other was really unique as it was weighted across from right to left and diagonal which was unusual. She said were they on a flower? I said no they were in flight. She asked how long had I seen them for. I answered for about a second. She looked at me blankly. I said do you want me to draw them for you it will be pretty accurate. She said no thanks. I asked her polietly do you not look at bumble bees?

 

I would get the same response from other students when loooking at urban spaces or gardens on a garden design degree course. It got to the stage where lecturers would ask for contributions and leave me to the end. I have had fellow students come to me and ask me to go and look at project sites. They have had a list of things they have considered are involved in the site in front of them and we have doubled or trebbled the list in 10 minutes or so. They have then explained that the origonal list of the obvious had taken them a couple of hours. I have at times been very concious of this ability and have often kept it hidden from others as I have found people in professional scenarios to being quite resentful.When i was involved with using the techniques of experiential mapping this was also the case. In many ways my diagnosis for AS has helped in this area as I can put my finger on it. I find NT's then have something to hang their responses on.

 

I think any research or academic work which explores this area will be highly valuable. I can remeber vividly watching a yound child with severe autism being in a play environment of light units which were filled with coloured oil and bubble patterns and being transfixed both with this individual but also what they were experiencing, I could have spent hours there. I then looked at the career and the other adults I was with and understood they did not really see this as the beautifull experience that this was for me, I think they saw it as an expensive toy for some poor kid. I think it may be the case that the two of us in the space were at possibly the opposite ends of the autistic spectrum but in many ways we couldn't have been closer.

 

Best wishes.

[shonad09]

I'm overwhelmed by your honesty and openness and thank you for this.

I try so hard to understand my own boys and try to always think ahead when organising an event or day out with them. My eldest (8 yr old) is by far the most sensitive. He struggles in social situations, in particular with his peers. He tends to enjoy the company of adults much more or if with peers he carefully selects them opting for the quiet kids. I used to think this was because he was a bit controlling, I now wonder if it is because of his hypersensitivity to noise. He is also very intense and needs his company to be as intense for example, when he has his closest friend in (a wee girl that is a complete tom-boy and very quiet) he controls their play, the amount of time they spend together and the excitement levels. When they are on a game for instance on the computer, he plays and she watches, he controls the volume, and if she gets excited he calms her down. Does this make sense?

 

Both my boys have panic attacks before leaving the house if we fail to give them an exact schedule of what our movements will be, should we fail to follow that when out they become very stressed. My eldest was memorising routes by the time he was 2 and should there have been road works on our route creating a diversion he was so distressed until we were back on the route he recognised. He also hates being in the car on motorways, I thought this would have become easier as he got older, but, it hasn't changed at all.

 

I was doing research last year on Museums and investigated 2 completely different museums in Glasgow for contrast reasons. Anyway I took both boys to both museums to observe their reaction to both and observed their navigation eg whether they followed the deliberate discourse within the museum. One of the museums they loved an almost claimed it as theirs and the other they hated. The one they hated was very unorganised, no clear footpaths to follow, areas were clustered with too much going on, parts of the museum had stenches of dampness and oldness, cases were uninviting (my opinion), loads in the background walls behind cases...I could go on and on, however, the other was very precise, orgainsed, clear footpaths, wide corridors, plain walls, high ceilings etc. My kids visit this museum every other week and never get bored of seeing it. When they enter it is almost as though they are the only ones there and they claim ownership to it. They have developed their own sense of meaning for that particular space in that if they observe a NT behaviour they have not witnessed before in the museum, they find it absolutely unacceptable and will pass comments all day about in a way that expresses their disgust that someone should behave in such a way in "their" museum.

 

Are you comfortable with me using your post as part of my data collection? I would not use if you were uncomfortable with it.

[Sally44]

We are also out of area, and my son is 11.

 

But a couple of things we struggle with, which might be of help to adults as well would be:

 

A quiet/calming area to escape to out of the hustle and bustle.

 

Public toilets that do not have noisy hand-dryers that cause him to shriek and run away [maybe just in the disabled toilet?].

 

For shops to be predictable. Eg. the supermarket keeps moving products around so that the average shopper goes through the whole shop looking for them. Someone with ASD may not cope with this change [and it is a frequent change in our store].

 

Don't know if that is helpful or not.

[shonad09]

Hi Sally44,

 

This is helpful and these are some of the things I believe need to be included in urban planning along with many others that are easily adapted into our cities and public spaces. Thank you so much for responding.

[LancsLad]

Of course I am happy to use anything I have said. Before you read on be aware I am in a good mood after a great family night out at the curry house, few beers included and might be in full flow, be warned, can in hand here we go!

 

To be totally honest I havn't the faintest clue what it would be like to be anything other than myself. I had to go through a phase in my early life around the age of 7 to 9 when I realised that things where probably different from what most people experienced in my life and simply wanted to be the same. Then I realised I had some advantages over others and was not sure if this was good or bad my teenage years. I then started to use these attributes to my advantage but felt really isolated. The latest period of my life is realising there will be others in the world who experience things in a similar way which is really exciting and reassuring. How I view my external environment was a part of this but without doubt social issues dominated in the early years.

 

I do not find it surprising at all that at 2 a child can really take in the world around them to the point it is a big thing if something is different from day to day. The truth is that from my experience this is a big thing and as such demands an emotional response. For the average adult this event would posibly go unnoticed as the average NT is not really tuned into their environments. I could say to the NT's out there please describe 10 strangers you passed today what they were doing, wearing, how they walked etc.... the answer is most couldn't. The problem for the average 2 year old is how do you express a strong emotional response, the answer is that often this will be something which is read as distresss, it might be it might not, they might simply be expressing "mum did you see that!". As an adult I may well have a better emotional vocabluary and might think and say, "did you see that it was the new Aston Martin DB9 its really exciting", to which the average NT, my partner, looks at me blankly with a perplexed look, and says "no I am concetrating on driving down the motorway". OK I have learnt a few words but it still comes across as pretty immature.

 

I do think that the average child with AS is often hyper stimulated by their environment and do not have the emotional tools in place to effectivly deal with the situation. At times they will want to avoid such scenarios all together, at others I think the opposite is true and we life can be a very exciting rollercoaster where we want to be on the edge of things. I totally get Shona your perception that the little people in your life can easily get to a stage where they feel they own a space and it becomes assimilated into their comfort zone.

 

Personally I have great difficulty with many posts on this forum from parents especially mothers who look at their children and who in my opinion transfare their perceptions on how they experience their world onto their ASD child and read their anxiety as a very problematic thing for which they feel any caring adult would need to find a solution. As a parent I can fully understand this position but it does not mean I subscribe to it. I feel at times they have low aspirations for their child and simply want them to manage their issues and have a 'normal' life. My own experience of life is that I am hyper stimulated by environments and when i was younger this could be a bit too much for me to handle and without anyone explaining to me why this was the case I was confused. I kind of suspect that if the the average NT could spend a bit of time in my brain it might well be like stepping from a black and white movie into a technicolour 3D version of the same story with the sound turned up and in smelly vision. If this is true I do not want a 'normal' life, rather I like it as it is thank you. Would you want to go back to Black and White silent movies? OK having a bit of fun here as I believe thats whats up for an Oscar, havn't seen it yet but look forwards to a proper bit of cinematic creativity.

 

Where was I, to be able to get to this point has meant that I have had to develop a complex set of skills which are focused on me dealing with the neagative aspects of AS so that I am well placed to use the best bits of the condition to my advantage. I think this is a very different life proposition to many positions expressed by NT's on this forum. In my book the challenge is for us with ASD is to try and understand our environments and that is difficult when we see them in so much detail. At times we get scared by the intensity and either retreat or kick off, but when we learn to live with it in my experience life can be very full. I love being in very complex environments either urban or in fantastic open landscapes, often in dramatic weather, I love to be in the mountains in a storm. I even like like to see people in them and in complex urban environmets how they move in patterns, but please, please don't expect me to interact with them thats when it gets really, really difficult. Map their movements yes, talk to them no.

 

As an individual with an ASD I fully understand that when it comes to people and interacting to them I have a development issue in my brain to the extent normal rules do not come naturally to me and I have problems at times in working out social interactions. However having ASD has meant for me that I may see the world very differently and that is a good thing. It is however something which needs time to adapt to and come to terms with. I do think some individuals do find difficulty coming to terms with strong environmental stimulus and I find things such as artificial bread smells hundreds of metres away from a bakery counter highly confusing, why because it breaks all rational rules. I am not too sure as to how much of this we should design out or how much of it is down to self management. I know I prefare to walk against the flow of traffic on a busy road, it reduces the chances of a lorry coming up behind me and braking and me having to deal with unexpected noise, much rather I see it coming, I do however like big lorries especially the articulated ones with rear wheel drive which are very interesting. As we learn to cope with environments we better programme our brains to predict outcomes and factor in potential irregularities. This is what i suspect your own children are doing and as such I fully support you in taking a step backwards and assessing what you think they are currently capable of dealing with as in your museum example and coming out of the other end with a valuable learning experience. This is very different to feeling sorry for them and wrapping them up in cotton wool. As I have previously highlighted ASD is primarily a development difficulty around issues of social legiability, having a strong response to environments can be seen as either a positive or a negative and should in my personal opinion not be something which is bolted onto social issues simply as a matter of course, often in trying to justify the difficulties an individual is experiencing as a means of adding value to a proposition which lets face it is constructed from a negative position in the first place.

 

If we want to see ASD as a disabiltiy I feel that is what we will find, a disability and human nature will make the average NT feel guilty and want to compensate due to a compelling need to draw the individual concerned into the mamilian pack mentality. If we want to see it as a 'different life position with affords an unconventional but highly valuable perception on life and the world around us' then I think we will find something in that as well except it is more positive for all concerned NT's and Aspies alike. As an honorary Aspie please don't ask me to go on a diplomatic mission to Syria and sort out the problems over there I havn't the faintest idea where to start nor the skills needed even if I did. On the other hand please respect that my AS might make me after time and experience a human expert on the environment around me which might mean I am very well placed to design things such as concepts for sustainable tidal communities, my latest special project by the way. This poses a very difficult proposition for you Shona, should you champion a cause which aims is to desensitize environments for the benefit of your children when they are younger, or should you support them through their initial difficulties so they may become the champion designers of the future who's aim is to provide a simpler and more rewarding environments for the average NT who fails to see it at their level?

 

Sure I am having a bit of fun here, but you started it at 8:42 this morning and when i opened up the forum it was not what I was expecting either! Your post is much welcome and I hope others come on board as Sally did and make a valuable contribution.

 

kind regards.

[Shona Davidson]

Hi LancsLad,

 

I love your description of the way you visualise your environment. I have never, and never will see my boys as having a 'disability' I sit in awe of their intelligence. I feel for my 8 year old only in that his school fail to recognise he is much more intelligent in particular areas than most of his peers, therefore, will not accommodate it. His reading skills are way beyond his years and he hates the books the school give him, he describes them as 'baby' books with no importance to them. He loves encyclopedias, how to books, science and geography books. I don't mind telling you that albeit I am a 'human' geographer I know very little about maps and countries whereas my 8 year old takes pleasure in putting me to shame. He knows every capital of every country in the world and their flags. I just burst with pride when I watch him show off his intelligence. As you will know most Aspies will also become obsessed with specific things and my 5 year old is obsessed with football, and despite being a huge footie fan myself he also puts me to shame with his knowledge. He also has an obsession with cars and their colours.

 

I get very annoyed when people assume this is a disability, even family members still fail to recognise the attributes of Aspergers and it infuriates me. I don't find it takes much to put myself in their shoes at times when they begin to react to situations. I had a time of it with my 5 year old a while back. He wanted to join a football club which I took him to. However, when we arrived it was raining and being played in a gym hall, as you can imagine the echo of 30 young boys was too much for him to cope with so he cried for 55mins of the 60 and played for 5. The presence of other parents was also of concern to him. Despite being extremely upset he refused to leave the hall, but sat in a corner crying for the entire time. However, I did not feel I had to wrap him in cotton wool, to do so would have been detrimental to the challenge he was setting himself by remaining in the hall. This went on for 6 weeks with each week him crying for 5 minutes less until he could eventually enter and play after 10/15 minutes of adjusting himself to the noise levels. I could have nothing but admiration for the way he recognised his own challenges and set about confronting them on his own. He now plays in the team and is a fabulous wee footballer. I believe all parents should try gently pushing their child a little more and a little more at a time. People with ASDs are not to be pittied they are to be admired, however, NTs must recognise urban cities and public places are built by NTs for NTs without any consideration for other (dis)abilities that are not so visually apparent.

 

Thank you for all the insight you are giving me I have enjoyed being able to learn more from an adult perspective. I don't know any adults with Aspergers and it is fabulous to be able to speak with yourself and gain an understanding of the positives my boys will continue to experience in their own unique way.

 

Best,

S

[Shona Davidson]

Hi LancsLad,

 

Came across this paper this morning and thought you may enjoy it. Link is below.

 

http://ksu.academia.edu/DavidSeamon/Papers/986517/Merleau-Ponty_Perception_and_Environmental_Embodiment_Implications_for_Architectural_and_Environmental_Studies

[LancsLad]

Thanks for the paper Shona, have been through it and it is very much along with my line of thinking. A lot of my interests are based around space as opposed to architecture as a collection of physical objects and how individuals can create theatre in environments, my masters dissertation is concerned with 'skateboarding in the contested realm'. I would argue that urban skateboarding lifestyle along with free running culture in its highest form is possibly the ultimate expression of many of the concepts expressed in this paper certainly in the urban context.

 

In respect to ASD what I find important is that if we see autism as a developmental condition which affects part of our brains structure, then I strongly believe we have to recognise and understand the potential for compensatory processes to take place in the same brain structure. At a personal level I know I have a real development weakness in respect to social interaction and how I relate to other human beings. From the moment we are born we are on a life long mission to try and make meaning out of our environments. I am convinced that in my first few weeks of life that whilst nearly every NT would have been focused on their mothers face in trying to find meaning, I would have seen my mother as having no potential as a learning area and would have been looking at , listening to and smelling my clothes, cot and everything else around me. As a result if you think of the brain as a muscle I would have exercised some areas disproportionatly compared to the average NT.

 

I think the easiest way to understand this aspect of ASD is that many of us a super tunned into our physical world. Unfortunatly it is not easy to turn this down to normal levels. As a result there are two ways we can go. We can either say it is all too much and retreat to very safe environments or we can decide to hang around for a bit and try and make sense of our world. A good analogy would be walking down a normal width footpath through a park. Most individuals are quite capable of doing this without falling of onto the grass areas at the side. I believe having AS is like seeing this patch as a bridge without hand rails or supports crossing the span between two buildings. The natural reaction is to turn back but if we hang around for a bit we will get used to the height, we might decide we want to really go to the opposite building and eventually we might rationally think I don't fall of paths in the park, why will I fall off this one? The truth is of course if i do I will get hurt possibly very badly so it might be a good idea to really concentrate on what I am doing. The starting point here is exposure in a reasonably safe place so we come to terms with what the reality is of the situation. It is for this reason I fully agree with your approach to football. Because the many children and adults with AS have to deal with strong environmental stimuli it can take a bit more time to adjust to our environments than NT's. I think a lot of people see AS as something which requires us to teach coping skills to the child, to show them that this isn't a bridge between two buildings but it is only a footpath through the park and we can get through it and go to Grannies for tea, I have some sympathy for this approach as a point on a developmental path.

 

What if it is not a footpath through a park but it really is a narrow unprotected bridge at some height? In this scenario some Aspies might well have the advantage over their NT counterparts. What I believe is that as Aspies in environmental scenarios we do this by really focusing on all the details in trying to make sense of things. A lot of NT's might if they really wanted to get to the opposite building decide to simply close their eyes and run across to get it out of the way. Someone with AS could never do this in my opinion rather they need to get to a point where they have fully computed the situation worked out how I am going to do this and then execute. They can do this at a high level because through overcompensation they have exercise the relevent sections of their brain to be super efficient at processing such details. I think this comes back to an early point of your's Shona when you say your sons can own a place! Simply they have done the computation in their minds and can now happily execute play in the space.

 

What I think the paper you have kindly provided a link for explores is how deep can our understanding of space and environment go? I think for a lot of lay people reading the paper they might find a lot of the concepts very difficult to grasp. If however I put a proviso on it and say it was not about the real world but a virtual one produced by a highly imaginative super computer through which you could move using a motion sensory suit and inteact with things such a multi coloured energy streams, I believe they could get a lot closer to accessing some of the basic concepts which the paper contains. It is also true that we could say of some of our AS children that for a lot of the time they seem as if they are in a virtual world! I do not think they are in a virtual world at all rather they are transfixed by their own real world but they see it in so much more detail and as such are concerned with how objects interact with each other which is really important.

 

If we see things at this level then I believe a lot of autistic behaviours start to make sense. I know from my science that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. There is real science to support my notion that all the objects around my drawing board have varying amounts of kinetic and potential energy this could be measured. As the paper suggests I also bring to the scenario a multitude of enregy forces as another object also a lot of psychological experiences and life forces. To many NT's the area around my drawing board might demonstrate OCD and be seen as a negative influence, to me it might be a beautifully balanced dynamic space aligned to the creative energy forces which I bring into the scenario, who is right and who is wrong?

 

To me a lot of the contents of this excellent academic paper make a lot of sense and if people would really try to make conections with the environments they live in then they too could see more meaning in their lives. I believe our urban environments have become far too complex a construct for most people to be able to process their meanings, as a result they do not 'live' in them rather they exist by 'living in themselves' simply navigating their way through space from one social interaction to another, mobile phones, MP3 players etc.. being life support devices to be used in a poisionous environment. I think there are very strong arguments to be made for simplyfying our urban spaces on an architectural level which would benefit everybody. If we are to re-engage with our environments then I think there is a role for designers to play but it can't be self endulgent rather we have to see ourselves as creating opportunities for human theatre rather than providing objects of desire which simply feed current perceptions.

 

If we are to create environments with more meaning and to then realign ourselves to them in meaningful ways then I strongly believe we may need guides to help us along the way. If we ever get to this stage in our society then I think there is a massive role for people with ASD to play. Because of the fact that I 'feel' the world around me in intense detail it has taken me a bit longer to become acustomed to this, for me having AS as a teenager was a rights of passage in this area but I was draw by my fascination to learn through experience which eventually led to other things. Having got through this rights of passage I find concepts such as simply trying to 'cope' as a bit patronising to be honest. Rather I see myself as someone who is capable walking along difficult routes at lofty heights with reasonable confidence, finding people to take a stroll with me is the difficult part.

 

I think the paper is very thought provoking if it is used as a contextual foundation to explore environmental design and autism. I go back to my example of the severly autistic child lying down in the light room inside a special school. I was very drawn to the individual because I could feel she could see and feel something I couldn't, I had to get down to her level and try to understand, I got closer to understanding when I looked into her eyes I knew I was seeing an expert in something, and that she was capable of and was reatuning herself into the space we had invaded in attempting to find new meanings of an environment I had become a temporary part off, I didn't feel sad for her to be honest I felt jealous. The first step and this is why I think you chosen area of study is so important is to find meaning. We then have to draw out conclusions and from there set ourselves questions to test those theories, eventually we might find answers. I do not claim to have any answers, but I do have some pretty strong gut feelings and that is in the future we will see autism as something far more complex than the average NT's current perception, and that will turn a lot of thinking on its head. If this leads to a common psychological environment where mindsets are changed then I think a lot of people diagnosed with high functioning autism would feel very different about themselves and what they are capable of. A new member to the forum this week put his view forwards that he hoped to find the magic silver bullet to cure autism, I do not support his viewpoint but I respect him all the same. I disagree with him fundamentaly as I feel even if we could, killing off this often destructive animal we call autism would be potentialy getting rid of a lifeforce which I believe will in future hold the key for solving many of the problems which we are now facing on our planet. Just a few thoughts and thanks for sharing the paper it was interesting.

[globalrevolutionary1]

Hey Shona after trying my best but unable to read everything as I am not a really good reader, As someone who has a positive diagnosis of high functional aspergers syndrome I was brought up to live around society not society living around me, meaning that I should try my damm hardest to work around my environment and build up a tolerance to the lights, sounds and smells around me without complaining, and I believe this has held me in good stead as I can now just zone them out as best as I can. But if I was to ever change my environment I would make an effort in incorporating creating time out rooms in buildings and also make the fashion stores turn down the volume of their music and make them more open planned as my god its horrendous shopping experience even for a NT. Other than my points mentioned I just believe that changing the environment is just not going to work in my honest opinion, I believe what has to happen is that we need to condition and train people with aspegers to learn to cope with changes in the landscape because I had to and my god it was brutal and very uncomfortable at first but I soon got used to it, I now LOVE to move house more often and I believe that has come down to been given a good dose of tough love and it may come across to parents as punishing or tantamount to torturing their children however I believe that you have just got to do it as if you dont its going to get a whole lot worse. Now I am not saying you have to throw them outside the door and push them around what I am saying is be coercing them out of their own comfort zone and condition them to the world around them as one day parents, carers and family may not be around to help and support them as in my case as I live with my mum in a single parent family and I have no other family to help and support me so its not about if but when I need to learn to cope with change to my environment on a regular basis which may I say is a scary prospect but I believe it just has to be done. So I hope this can help you understand a unique view as I know people with aspegers do not really like change all the much but I believe that with the right training not adapting people with AS can cope with environmental change better some easier than others may I note.

 

Regards

 

Global Revolutionary

[Shona Davidson]

LancsLad, I am just blown away every time you post, your passion, knowledge and analysis is overwhelming and actually moves me. Regardless of my dissertation you allow me to step a little closer to my boys with your very open and descriptive writing. I agree with you that 'coping' is patronising. I truly feel my boys experience more of their environment than any NT could and I envy their ability to recognise the finest details of such. Like most NTs I walk in the 'taken-for-granted' environment, however, when out with them I am forced to think about what they may see, smell, hear, feel, worry about etc. I must be honest I do fail at this at times and get very annoyed with myself if I fail to prepare for something that in hind sight was so obvious, do you know what I mean by this? I have always felt it very important to meet the level my boys are on, and in actual fact both are extremely close to my dad because he instantly comes down to their level, in age, attitude and humour, to the point they think he is their peer.

 

I loved this paper as, like you say, it is very thought provoking. I agree our environment should be much simpler, however, this is the detrimental impacts of capitalism. It has pulsated through the very veins of our environment. We live in an environment structured by NTs for NTs to drive capitalist growth. It has been suggested by some academics that there is a need to return to much of the Roman and Greek architecture and this would aid in simplifying our urban surroundings for those with ASD, would you agree? I also read a paper yesterday that reflects on a place in France it think was called Gessin? Apparently the streets,( please forgive my ignorance here, I have only studied urban design in a very minimal level eg: Grid patterns, Mesopotamia etc), are designed in a bead-like fashion which creates a pattern individuals with ASDs would enjoy navigating purely because of the pattern. My only problem with this concept, and again forgive my ignorance I am certainly not trying to speak for or on behalf of ASD, is that if streets go wide then narrow despite the pattern does this in itself not create huge problems?

 

Global Revolutionary1, Hi, thank you for responding to the post. I agree with you to a certain degree that a bit of tough love is necessary. I do not treat my boys any differently from my other two kids (now 16 + 18). They still get chores, discipline etc just the same. However, I recognised a difference in my 8 year old by the time he was 8 months old and gained knowledge of Aspergers very early on. I instantly recognised my parenting would need to be altered so that I could make life as easy as I possibly could for him without being soft or wrapping him in cotton wool. I strongly believed he would be raised exactly the same as my eldest children as far as morals, discipline etc, however, it was me, not him, that had to change. For instance I soon realised that where I would normally have given my eldest 2 a ticking off in a particular tone or voice level or even at times from a different room, I couldn't do this with my son. I knew that to raise my voice would be a pointless exercise because the minute my voice was raised he switched off. I also recognised that I had to crouch to his height so that I could be at eye level with him holding his hand and speaking to him in a calm, but, stern manner whilst explaining the very fine details of why it was not ok to put jam in the sockets. I will try constatntly to encourage my boys to explore everything in life and to not be afraid. They at times hold back because of confidence issues, therefore, my 'tough love' is to push them beyond their fear barriers by giving them tons of confidence to believe they can get through the things that scare them with every new experience. For instance my 5 year old is yet to have a birthday party because he is so scared of what may happen. Therefore, I have pushed him to go to other parties and make a point of leaving him to fend for himself whilst there. Is this tough love? I don't know I believe it is my job to constantly encourage and help him face his fears in a gentle way. To do this successfully I need to consider all the consequences of what he may experience in the hour time scale he is within that party environment and be ready to congratulate him for confronting these and coming out the other end unscathed. Hopefully this will give him the life skills to understand his own strengths and to grow into a confident independent adult. Am I doing the right thing? I don't know, all I know is that ASD or NT this is my job.

 

I agree with the suggestion of time out spaces being built into the urban environment, this is one of the things I have already discussed with urban planners. My hope is that this dissertation will lead to a proposal to architects and planners.

 

Thank you so much for your response, I cannot thank all of you enough for becoming involved. I am finding it very difficult however, to establish a group meeting in this area, however, will keep trying.

[Peebs]

I would be happy to discuss this sort of thing by email, however I don't live in Glasgow.

[Shona Davidson]

Hi Peebs,

Thank you for responding, you can email me privately at shona.davidson.100@strath.ac.uk