Comments on: Nightline, and why I can’t tell you a lot about it.

By: Ettina

Ettina — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:19:15 +0000

Margie O’Neill, Amanda Baggs has no involvement with the Nightline show she discusses here, nor does she decide what Nightline will profile next.

By: Margie O'Neill

Margie O'Neill — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 23:42:49 +0000

I watched your show on Asperger … and lately there has been numberous shows on Austism. WHY is there NEVER anything about Klinefelter’s Syndrome? This is what my son has. No, I never hang with other mothers who have this in their family … because I know no one close. Klinefelters Syndrome is an extra sex chromosome. My son, Kevin, has 2 extra sex chromosome, XXYY. We are totally alone because this is NEVER shown or discussed. If you know a tall boy, with bad teeth and a huge dental bill, who has a hard time fitting in with his peers, has a hard time figuring out the social working of his world … you might have known a Klinefelter boy. I wish it were more well known because I know there must be one close to us … if I could only find him! My son has never had a true friend. He used to have a short Cambodian boy to hang with. Too bad he moved to CA. We only see others when we go to a confention once a year or to the NIH every 2 years. The NIH is studying Klinefelters. That is the only fun part of this, we have got to see DC several times. Please! have Nightline profile the Klinefelter boy!!

Margie O’Neill

By: Ettina

Ettina — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:36:20 +0000

I sometimes wonder if I’m *really* autistic because I can read nonverbal signals fairly well and most of the time emit fairly normal nonverbal signals. However, every so often I get a hint of some aspects of social interaction I miss. Once I was asked if I had any siblings, and said I had a younger brother and an older half-sister who was put up for adoption before I was born. The person I was talking to gave me this odd look, and I realized it was not considered normal to mention this to someone you’ve only just met. But since her son’s autistic and I’d mentioned I was, I think she figured out that I hadn’t intended to cross some social rule.

By: Shiu^Amorpha

Shiu^Amorpha — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 23:29:13 +0000

Whether our voice sounds ‘normal’ depends on who you ask, really, but I notice that it gets much more stiff and ‘flat’ when we’re speaking with a person who sees us as having something wrong with us. It’s an unconscious thing that we don’t seem to have much control over, but it’s frustrating because it’s like in expressing that attitude, even non-vocally, they provoke a reaction from us which causes us to look more like the stereotypical image of that ‘problem.’

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 05:17:24 +0000

For reference: Not an autistics.org sticker originally, it was from Oddizm and her Cafepress site I think.

By: Bluejay Young

Bluejay Young — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 23:15:44 +0000

Today, I talked to another friend about the facilitation I am doing for Amorpha at their university. We had a faculty conference with their professors, but this week one of them treated Amorpha as if they were just another student, expecting them to intuit things on very little explicit information — after we had made it quite clear in the meeting that Amorpha could not be expected to do that.

In the course of the conversation my friend mentioned that he saw the Nightline feature and thought the main impression people are going to take from that piece is “Autistic people can’t communicate or have difficulty communicating.” Since most people draw their impression of what autism is like from what they see on TV (same as what they think about multiplicity — bleh), Amorpha’s professors when in standard professor-autopilot mode (as it seems this man was) may not remember that they are dealing with an autistic person, because Amorpha do not fit the TV-profile. They are able to speak “normally”, do not have an impeded or unmodulated voice, and are comfortable talking about their chosen subject.

I had chosen an “I am autistic” pin for them from Winged Turtle to wear when dealing with professor types. My friend suggested that if that didn’t get the message across to the professors, we substitute one that says “Not all autistics are alike,” and/or the slogan “Autism, it’s not like you think”, which I believe was originally an autistics.org sticker.

By: jeffrey smith

jeffrey smith — Wed, 31 May 2006 22:03:36 +0000

Explain to people that while they live at a twenty-first century pace, suitable for e-mail, you prefer to live at a nineteenth century pace, suitable for fountain pens and sailing ships. Or (this is actually something I read in one of this morning’s comic strips), your mind is on dial-up mind in a broad band world.

And remind them that everything can be improved by being thought through thoroughly.

By: anon

anon — Wed, 31 May 2006 14:57:59 +0000

I saw a webcast of the show earlier today, and the correspondent opens the segment by using the “special” word. Oh sh-.

By: Bluejay Young

Bluejay Young — Wed, 31 May 2006 02:05:45 +0000

Well, thank you for putting us onto this show. I am watching it now, and it is very patronizing. It makes my head explode when they’re saying things like “Do autistic people love the same as you and I do?” and “And yet autistic people can seem to be so at sea when trying to understand feelings.” and “He may never be ready for a sex life.” At least they now admit and show that we have feelings. Sort of.