Beautiful article

[Guest hallyscomet]

A beautiful article I thought you would enjoy reading

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Understanding Autism

 

Brisbanes Child (November 2005) Notbothm.E

 

Autism was once thought to be incurable, but individuals with autism are now showing us they can overcome, compensate for, and otherwise manage many of its most challaenging aspects.

 

Here are 10 things every child with autism wishes you knew:

 

1/ I am first and foremost a child. I am not primarily autistic. My autism is only one aspect of my total character. It does not define me as a person.

 

2/ My sensory perceptions are disordered. The ordinary sights, smells, sounds and touches of ordinary life can be downright painful for me. I may appear withdrawn or belligerent, but I am really just trying to defend myself. Here is why a simple trip to the supermarket may be hell for me:

 

- My hearing may be hyper-acute. The loudspeaker booms, the music whines from the sound system, babies wail. My brain can't filter all the input and I'm in overload.

 

- My sense of smell may be highly sensitive. The guy standing next to us hasn't showered today, the deli is handing out sausage samples, they're mopping up spilt bleach in ailse three...I am dangerously nauseated.

 

- I am very visually orientated, and because of this, vision may be my first sense to become over-stimulated.. Fluroescent lights hum and vibrate, the lights appear to pulsate and distorts what I am seeing. The ceiling fans are on and there are so many people moving around. There are too many items for me to be able to focus on (I may compensate with "tunnel vision") All this affects my vestibular sense, and now I can't even tell where my body is in space.

 

3/ It isn't that I don't listen to instructions, it's that I can't understand you. When you call me from across the room, this is what I hear, "@*%@ Billy."... Instead, come over and speak directly to me in plain words: "please put your book in your desk Billy, it's time to go to lunch" This tells me what you want me to do, and what is going to happen next.

 

4/ I am a concrete thinker. I interperet language very literally. It's confusing for me when you say, "hold your horses", if what you really mean is, "please stop running".

 

5/ Be patient with my limited vocabulary. It's hard for me to tell you what I need when I don't know the words to describe my feelings. I may be hungry, frustrated, frightened or confused, but right now those words are beyond my ability to express. Be alert for body language, withdrawal, agitation, or other signs something is wrong.

 

There is a flip side to this: I may sound like a little professor or movie star, rattling off words or whole scripts well beyond my developmental age. These are messages I have memorized from books, television or other people to compensate for my language deficits. I may not understand the context or the terminology I'm using.

 

6/ Because language is difficult for me and I am visually orientated, show me how to do something rather than just telling me. A visual schedule is extremely helpful as I move through my day. It relieves me of the stress of having to remember what comes next.

 

7/ Focus and build on what I can do, rather than what I can't do. Like you, I can't learn if I'm constantly made to feel not good enough and that I need "fixing". Look for my strengths and you will find them. There is more than one "right" way to do most things.

 

8/ Help me with social interactions. It may look as if I don't want to play with other kids, but it's just that I simply don't know how to start a conversation or enter into a play situation.

 

9/ Try to identify what triggers my meltdowns. Meltdowns and blow-ups are even more horrible for me than they are for you. They can occur because one or more of my senses have gone into overload. If you can figure out why my meltdowns occur, they can be prevented.

 

10/ View my autism as a different ability rather than a disability. Look past what you see as limitations, and see the gifts autism has given me. I may not be good at eye contact or conversation, but have you noticed that I don't lie, cheat at games, or pass judgement on other people? With my attention to detail, and capacity for extraordinary focus, I might be the next Einstein, Mozart or Van Gogh. They had autism too.

 

Be my advocate, be my friend, and we'll see just how far I can go.

[elaine1]

wow i just love that, it describes my son totally.

[Lucas]

Not entirely sure where you get some of these Hallyscomet, but I've read most of them before. The criticism then as it is now is that this is something written by an NT presuming to speak as an Autistic.

 

It is very common among the curbie Autism community to either pretend to be Autistic, or have a verbal middle-aged curbie Autistic female pretending to be a non-verbal teenage curbie Autistic male and stuff like that. They appear to think there is more value in what a non-verbal, young and male Autistic- because the anti-cure Autistics tend to have a lot of them and for curbies they are scary.

 

This article thinks it's reaching a compromise, but this author is not a person who had judged Autistic advocates by what they say, but what is said about them. Otherwise, it would have been obvious that any attempt to speak in our place would be seen as offensive. Has there been any occassion anyone can remember where an Autistic adult has pretended to be a Neurotypical parent?

[keyholekate]

Hi Lucas!

 

What's a curbie?

[bid]

People who want to 'cure' autism, as though it is some kind of disease or illness

 

Bid

[keyholekate]

Thanks Bid.

[Emum]

The article is in fact a summary of a longer book, with the same title, which the same author has written. It is available from Amazon, and it is quite good as a very basic intro to the whole area, and very accessible. I have lent it to friends who have children who have just been diagnosed, and it would be good to give to grandparents or interested but inexperienced teachers. There is also somewhere on the internet, though I don't have time to find it just now, a response to the article/book called ten things an adult with autism wish you knew (or something like this) which is a review by an autistic adult of the article with some postive and negative things to say about it. If I can find the link later I'll post it.

[Emum]

I think this is a link to the ten things an adult wishes you knew about autism article

 

10 things adult wishes you knew about autism

[caren]

thank you for that not only will it help with schools but also with family members who can't quiet grasp what autism is <'>

[jen]

I thought it was a clear discription of how somethings affect our ASD children. I am going to alter some of it and print it off for my new sons teacher. Should help her with planning etc.

 

 

Jen

[Lucas]

You can start doubting the chances of something about Autism from the first-person being written by an actual Autistic when they insist on person-first langauge. Very few Autistic adults refer to themselves as that over the Autistic prefix. It isn't stigmatising if you don't stigmatise it.

[Bullet]

Do you mean writing things like "I can see" rather than "it can be seen that" Lucas?

[Lucas]

No, I mean as in 'person with autism' in place of 'Autistic person'. It's a case of a person stigmatising themself but not recognising it.

 

One day, changing skin colour may be tolerated the same way sex changes are now(which isn't a lot but they are still legal and laws protect transexuals now). How would it be taken for a person of a certain race to declare they are not a white/black/asian but a person with whiteness/blackness/asianess?

[Bullet]

It''s funny you say that. I can now say Tom is autistic and know that that is who he is. But with myself, because I do not have definite proof I still say "I probably have Aspergers". I suppose if I got the proof I'd be proud to say I'm an Aspie, but it's as though I'm waiting for the final confirmation. The point with me is that I experience some sensory difficulties, problems with communication, problems with organising myself and recognising when I'm hungry, when I need to wash or comb my hair amongst other things but no-one told me it was because of a probable reason. They just broke it down so I was clumsy, scatterbrained, shy, walked funny, couldn't look at people so I just saw myself as "me".

The article itself is wellmeaning but seems to focus on autistic and aspergers children. With the result that a lot of people still think that only children can be autistic or aspergers and you grow out of them. The educational psychologist who was part of the team that diagnosed Tom was talking to me about how I was like at school and then said "it's really interesting to talk to someone who's come through it". I had to explain that I haven't come through it, that it is still who I am and that I'll always have difficulties in some areas and strengths in other areas because of it.

[dooday24]

I LOVE IT

[Lucas]

I remember a brilliant parody written by an NT parent of an Autistic boy about ten things HE would actually want you to know and he often didn't shut up about them. Almost all of them finished off with him wanting to watch a Smokey and The Bandit DVD.

[Lucas]

Well I remember that there was a parody, but the parody itself is lost in my head.

[cmuir]

Have to say this brought a tear to my eyes! Really strikes a chord - reminds me of my son Robert.

 

Lovely piece! I think it summarises the difficulties faced by people with an ASD beautifully (if that's the right word).

 

Caroline.