Comments on: D’s Autism Society Presentation (November, 2006)

By: Carl

Carl — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:27:14 +0000

Many of the ideas respresented here are a breath of fresh air. They address universal truths of humanity and social justice. Anyone would be well-served to visit this site for its affirmation of the human spirit and as a refresher on how best to treat each other.

A caution: Using a metaphor of war to characterize autism research (Combatting Autism Act) clearly represents the sentiment of the mainstream population and should serve as a warning to all people with autism. Mightn’t these funds be better utilized if they were used to determine to discover the wonderful talents that people with autism possess? It may well be that people with autism are better adapted to our increasingly electronic age, so we better not squander this resource.

By: mattymo

mattymo — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:14:58 +0000

Thanks, Amanda.
Does Drew primarily type when he wants to communicate with English language?

I like D’s poetry on YouTube, the trampoline gymnastics, and the videos of him interacting with Harley the horse. I’ll probably watch more later…
Have you seen this article on an australian cattle dog assisting in therapy with an 8-year-old autistic boy? You can watch a 20-minute video on the site.

http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/mar/01/effects-animal-assisted-therapy-child-autism/

By: andreashettle

andreashettle — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 10:42:47 +0000

Thank you, Dinah. This sounds like a terrific concept.

As a deaf person, how can I identify which videos are accessible to me? (i.e., have captions for spoken parts AND ALSO to describe background noises etc.)

By: Dinah

Dinah — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:17:01 +0000

Amanda’s videos are in the PosAutive Youtube group at http://www.youtube.com/group/posautive and mainly in its ‘sense’ subgroup too. There are a lot of worthwhile and strongly argued videos in the sense group – and a lot of fun videos in the other groups too. We started the Posautive Group to counteract the widespread demonizing presentation of autims in the media.

By: andreashettle

andreashettle — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 11:35:56 +0000

L, Glad you liked it. Amanda has done a bunch of videos. I also like her video talking about the label "retard" http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=220 and her video on "Being an Unperson" http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=223. Re, all of us fitting into both categories: in my case, I suppose I could fit into "high functioning" when I'm doing things like writing speeches for my boss, but "low functioning" if I had to do something athletic like play baseball or climb a tree (I can't catch; I could never run that fast even before I injured my foot 7 years ago and stopped being able to run at all; and I'm just not well coordinated). But society is more tolerant of things like poor athletic coordination than it is things like inability to communicate through speaking. So I suppose the "divisions" between HFA/LFA really reflect the values of the people doing the categorization more than they do anything about the person being categorized. And then, I could be "low functioning" when I have the flu and can't do my normal activities. But society is more tolerant of fluctuations in skill level that can be traced to an obvious and very common cause that people understand easily because they've had the same experience (illness, recent injury, fatigue) than it is of fluctuations traced to a poorly understood disability. So one gets labeled as representative of "low functioning" while the other doesn't.

By: L

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 00:28:03 +0000

Andrea,
Thank you for posting the link to the video, I had not actually seen it before.
I agree with Laura’s representation of High/Low functioning. The terms really do bother me, because I think ALL people can be placed in both categories, depending on what you’re talking about. And I mean ALL people, autistics and non-aut alike.
I agree with her that it’s a disservice to both “types” ignoring assets for the “LF” and ignoring deficits in “HF”.
Great interview. Again, thanks for pointing me to it.

By: metimestwo

metimestwo — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 01:37:09 +0000

I feel that the tomatoes have not been riding elephants long enough to have the scarecrows in the valley play parchisi with the dogs from the pound in the emerald city. If there WAS going to be a band play at the festival of the purple clouds, it should have been the one featuring the boar and the singing bird.

By: n.

n. — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 17:19:18 +0000

Brian, i think it is useful to think of the things that were said in this very blog at this link [ http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=326 ] in paragraphs 18-22, ending with this:
And I simply can’t understand the attitude that says “Don’t show this one person on TV, they’re not representative.” Who is? And who says that when we appear on TV, it’s to be representative in every way of every autistic person? Might it not be because we have ideas that are important to the world, independent of our particular medical labels? (And some of the labels that were used on the broadcast are not terms I would use for myself, for that matter.)
i think what Amanda says here applies just as much to any autistic person: the more of us they see, the more they can know how various we are.

By: n.

n. — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 17:13:46 +0000

i was never at that guy’s level at that age (ok, at any age), but i have no doubt that some people are (including him, especially as we have a personal witness).
i would speculate this, though: at age 9 or 10, reading the KJV for church and Dickens for fun, i probably had a higher active vocabulary (in one language) than i do now in any of the 3 languages i can use passably well.
i am pretty sure i have noticed even my receptive vocabulary decreasing, too, maybe (i hope) due to lack of practice or to shifting brain priorities, rather than already-declining brain capacity…
although… things i have learnt lately indicate to me that a possible loss of IQ points should not make a person feel they had lost their self or something…

By: zebralady

zebralady — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 08:35:20 +0000

Dear Amanda,
Thank you, thank you, a million times thank you. I am so very greatful that you have shared your story. You have truely taught me so much about myself and this crazy, wonderful world we live in.

Rosemary says it more elloquently than I ever could in #2, but I add my 2 cents worth…

As someone who would certainly be classified as “on the spectrum” if in school today, I see how I became “normalized”, as I have recently come to think of it, never mind that “normal is just a setting on the clothes dryer”( and yet, of course, have never really felt anywhere near fitting into that range, always feeling like a total imposter)

As a parent, I see how I have tried to do the same with my son.

As a teacher’s aide, I see how I have been expected to do this with the children with multilple disablities in our classroom in school also.

It hurts to see all this, since I have always wanted to be a support and help to each person to achieve their own purpose in life. But as you say a certain road “is paved with good intentions”.

Thank you for opening my eyes to see what I have done that is unhelpful, please help me understand more of what would be helpful.

This has long been my “mission in life”, 15 years, since my son was in kindergarden, to eventually take another careeer step that would be more helpful to children, that have been “identified” in schools, to help get rid of the lables.

Now I’m not so sure where to step with out stepping in “it”, which I may have done enough of already.

It seems we truely need an overhaul of the education system…

sorry I’ve been up since 3am reading your site… so I’m losing it here.

Maybe there are no answers, but have we made any progress with the individualized plans?

So many things I want to ask. But most of all I want to tell you how grateful I am for all you have taught me.