Comments on: The roadmap that didn’t exist in the first place.

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 10:54:59 +0000

Reading and typing were both mostly self-taught, but I was also raised in an environment where self-teaching those things was possible, and had the motor skills to handle that.

It is not easy for me to give an exact age on assorted communication-related questions, because of the complexity of what communication entails and the fact that I learned it piecemeal and forgot and relearned several things over and over again, as well as at times having appearances of some things that were not real. It certainly was not as simple as learning all the different things necessary to reliable word-based communication all at once and having them come together immediately. I once wrote a 10-page paper on that (and yes, I consider some of the information in it private, so only a few people have seen it) that still didn’t fully capture the complexity of it, so I’ll just leave it at the fact that it was an incredibly complex process.

I will say though that exposure to a wide variety of autistic people was crucial in many stages of that.

By: natalia

natalia — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 10:48:12 +0000

PS: I think this particular post is useful for me and some people I know.

By: natalia

natalia — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 10:47:24 +0000

I was glad to find out from [http://www.kevinleitch.co.uk/wp/home.php] who you are, having devoured your “gettingthetruthout.org” and planning to show it to my students.

If it’s not too personal a question, I am curious about how you got them (whoever “them” was) to teach you how to read and type, or did you teach yourself, and at what age this happened. I keep thinking, if you had not managed to get that to happen, what insights would the world be missing out on, and what self-expression you would be missing out on as well. Please excuse if you have already written about this somewhere in your blog (but if I could get the link?). I have only found this blog today and have only read about 4 or 5 posts/articles so far.

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 16:48:49 +0000

I figure my son will be “fine” for some value of “fine” as an adult.

I have no idea what that value will be. I’m looking forward to finding out.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 12:06:11 +0000

For us, the best reason for realising that my son is autistic when he was only 2, was so we could have some early intervention…on us, his parents!
I learned to observe him better and figure out his sensory preferences. I learned to drastically reduce the amount of spoken language I used when interacting with him, instead of talking ‘at’ him, and not giving him time to process things.
My husband worries about his future though, whereas I’m optimistic that he’ll find his niche and get along fine with whatever help he may need.

By: laurentius-rex

laurentius-rex — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 08:12:39 +0000

My brother couldn’t even get a job as a garbage man when he applied, too much competition. Actually todays garbage man requires a fair amount of technical knowlege including health and safety legislation.

By: Sharon Faulk

Sharon Faulk — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 07:05:02 +0000

I remember a conversation I had with a friend of mine whose son was recently diagnosed with autism. She was talking about how maybe he would be a garbage man now and joking about it. I told her she couldn’t tell WHAT he would grow to be at 3 years old. Even a “normal” kid can grow to be a grabage man. And who cares!
Sure, I wonder where my boys will be as adults. But I know I can’t force them into any image I may have of them. The only thing I can do, is find the best way for them to healthy and happy. That’s all you can do for any kid.

By: Alison Cummins

Alison Cummins — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 22:34:06 +0000

An acronym I love is TAB, for Temporarily Able-Bodied. Meaning anyone who is not already disabled.