Can you make it to the end?

Post Reply New Topic

https://youtu.be/Lr4_dOorquQ


Very accurate illustration of how an autistic person feels.

Touches my heart. Almost want to make me cry out of joy. Bravo! At this pace of autism research, in another 20 years, people will discover that drawing stick figures for their children is the way to go. (Ehem, that is sarcasm, in case any of you haven't figured it out.)

Today is World Autism Awareness Day. I have read all too many articles of parents describing their experience, from the moment they learned that their children were on the spectrum. Tears, broken-hearted. Asking questions like: "Why? Why? Why?" Why my child? Why me?

That is all very strange to me. Because my natural instinct at their news would be: "Congratulations." And I say that without the slightest sarcasm. It's truly how I feel. I think it's hard for people to understand my point of view. A video clip with Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones can best illustrate my point.
https://youtu.be/CvcpFTLZwrU


A few years ago, Simon Baron-Cohen gave a full talk about autism without mentioning the keyword "low-functioning" one single time.
https://youtu.be/BDEHjLMOhHI

He is the expert in the field. So, let's just leave it at that.

A few years ago, my feeling was: but, so many children's lives could be saved. Today, I have learned that, that was never the plan of Mother Nature. She is cold, but full of wisdom. The more I look at her, the more I admire her.

The silverlining is that the "neurodiversity" buzzword is making it into UN, which is a good thing.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53596#.VwCkLaQrJaV

I was going to post that video, it's a good one! I shared it on my facebook. I do hope it helps some people unfamiliar with ASD to understand as when I work in childcare as a 1:1 for children, the number of people who think the problem would be solved if I treated it as a matter of naughtiness is ridiculous. (There's also some who think that I should make the time one child needs to relax as boring as possible so that other children don't feel jealous or blame other children's behaviour on the fact I let the child I work with 'get away with it'. FFS.)

I've seen some parents complaining that NAS under-represents their "LFA" child and that it would have been better if the video was of an "LFA" child's meltdown, or that we have no idea what meltdowns are like for "LFA" children.

A few remarks by some that they or their children say they don't experience distortion from their sensory difficulties and others that say it fits them perfectly.

For me, sometimes I experience distortion and sometimes I don't.

People are commenting in the "Can you make it to the end" video about slow motion, I thought the whole point of slow motion was to illustrate that people on the spectrum notice more things than normal people do because of their sensitivity to sound and the fact they cannot filter out information like normal people can. Not that they are actually seeing it in slow motion.And the zooming is part was also to illustrate that more details they see normal people would overlook. Or am I wrong here?

That's quite possibility what they were doing. But when I get overwhelmed sometimes I do see things in slow motion.

Generally, when you have an intense experience, you tend to recall it in slow motion. When I was a little boy, one day my brother and I rode bicycles to our school to play baseball. On the way back, while switching lane, my bike was hit by a motorcycle from behind. I was ejected, flew in the air, landed on the rough road surface, got bad scrapes on my arms and on my knees. It all felt like slow motion. So, I very much can understand why slow motion has always been used in movies to portrait intense experiences. It's not seeing things in slow motion at the moment: it's recalling things in slow motion, afterwards.

I've posted one case of intense focus on one particular detail before:
https://wrongplanet.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=296628

http://infiniteach.com/autism-behavior-visual-schedule/


The school teacher used photos for "picture schedule" to remind an autistic child in school about his daily activities throughout a day. For playground time, the teacher showed the child the picture of the playground, obviously. The only problem was that the child would start to lose control and throw a fit, at the sight of the picture. It took them a while to figure out that, all the child saw was the little tiny yellow bus in the background: he thought that he was being sent home! The boy did indeed zoom in all the way to the tiniest spot in his vision, to see the bus.

All these are very interesting stories. As I said, at this pace of autism research, in another 20 years people will discover that stick figures are the way to go. Ha ha. Don't use the photo picture of a playground: draw a playground (swing set) instead, as I have always done for my children.