Does Taylor Morris now have ASD?

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At one point she was on ASD, but now it seems she's completely cured.

http://taylor-autism-aspergers-syndrome.com/

There is no cure. Only coping techniques. You can't "cure" alternative brain wiring. There is no medicine that will rewire something physical.

And all we're asking for is the same respect, courtesy, and appreciation as any other human being, regardless of 'label' or category or whatever.

Taylor describes herself as an Advocate for Autism and Asperger's. I think she is in high school getting ready to go to college. And good for her! Yes, with acceptance and a little bit of help, Aspie, 'Normal,' Different in Different Ways, all of us, each of us, can accomplish a great deal.

No she's been cured of it. Good news for everyone with autism.

I kind of worry about how she and her mother are promoting her accomplishments because they say that it was a change in her diet that helped her to overcome her delays. I've spent my entire life around other autistics and being autistic and I can tell you right now that diets might help to some small degree, but on their own, they're useless.

I mean, that's great that she's overcome so much, but seriously, a diet isn't the only thing that may be needed.

Naive parents may see Taylor's progress and think that there is a cure for autism, try it, fail and feel even shittier. It's nothing more than false hope.

Last edited by MindBlind on 19 Apr 2010, 5:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

She describes being symptomatic on an ongoing basis and she is observably symptomatic, so I cannot see how that constitutes "cured".

I'm a naive parent, I stumbled on her site via Utube and her progress and thought WOW, theres some hope.
It was great, all I had seen was Utube videos of ASD behaviour up to that point.

The diet thing had me thinking too. I know from my reading that there are some children with dietary problems who display ASD type behaviours until that is addressed. In her case I think she was probably always going to have ASD at some level, but perhaps the diet problem for her exacerbated the ASD at that point in her life.

I'm not really that keen in persuing diet with my son, physically he's as healthy as a buck rat and eats a wide range of healthy stuff. Maybe I should though.

I don't think she's symptomatic, much less observably.

Tangerine she describes herself as experiencing symptoms, so if you think she is not symptomatic do you think she is lying?

Quick multi-choice mini quiz
What does flattened expression look like?
A) a pancake
B) the girl in the video clip linked to in this thread.

Flattened expression; it's not something that you eat.

err- by my standards she's very emotionally expressive
she also doesn't seem socially inept, she talks about having friends.

Someone with ASD can have friends. It doesn't mean it's EASY to make them or keep them however. Social ineptitude doesn't mean you are 100% incapable of ever making friends or finding people you can relate to somewhat. It just means it is difficult. The difficulty depends on the individual's certain situation. I am Dx and show all characteristics at some level or another. However, I can get through day to day stuff and get along with people, especially if it s situation where I can mentally prepare (interview, work where I see the same people all the time, a family dinner, etc). It's awkward most of the time but some people just think I am "charmingly eccentric" (and a lot think I am just weird). I have made a few short term friends this way- aquaintances really. But when it comes to the long term they usually see me as a flake or snobby because I do not "hang out" much or ever call them. I usually do not make plans with them to DO anything (movies, meals, parties, whatever). It just doesn't occur to me. Sometimes if THEY want to make plans I will agree and maybe go. But my lack of initiation seems to signal to them I am not interested in being their friend. Sometimes though, they just realize I am a bit of a "hermit".

Over the years I have managed to keep one friend. And she is one the most patient people EVER. I have gone months without contacting her yet when we see each other finally she is very accepting of it. She calls me 9 times ot of 10 and doesn't seem bothered by this. I think it is because she knows I am like this all the time, with all friends and she accepts it most of the time and doesn't take it personally. That is a rare person, but they do exist.

My husband is better at making long term friends, and he is even more of a stereotypical "Aspie", however he doesn't have a phone phobia and calls people much more often than I do. So he has more friends.

So I guess my point is that we can definitely have friends. The part to pay attention to is the fact that it is not something that comes 100% natural to an Aspie. That does not mean it is impossible for it to happen or that if you make a friend or two that means you are "cured".

your standards have very little to do with clinical assessment.

do you really think she's emotionally flat by clinical assessment?

She manifests flattened expression and it certainly ought to be clinically significant.

If I look at the face of someone who does not have an ASD, when they are talking there is a plasticity and mobility to their face and its features. There is a lot of movement around the eye and brow region in particular. Taylor's eye and brow region has a stillness. The scant mobility that can observed is reliant on direction of her gaze.

Interesting. I've been told I look bored. I guess I have a better understanding. I consider Taylor to be more emotionally expressive than me. I take it it'd be hard for ASD to become an actor or any job that requires plasticity and mobiility to face and features.

While Taylor is not Oriental, I've heard that Asians also have flattened expression, so if true, could it also be cultural, or even racial?

I do not know if this effect could be observed using footage from the time period. The grainy quality and low frames per minute rate make me dubious about the utility of any attempt to observe flattened expression in these two. Just about anyone appears to have flatted expression when not pulling faces in old footage.

I've never really observed them. I also would expect glasses would present a complication as they would create additional movement in the area and might obscure movement to a degree also. I personally have not seen any footage of Jobs or Speilberg where the face was in the right frame of reference to even look for such. I have never actively observed Gates to look for such, and had no idea about AS on the occassion I did see an interview with him where his face was in the right frame of reference to be observed to look for flattened expression. There was certainly something "different" about the way his face moved, but whether it was flattened expression I would not know without viewing the footage with the intent of looking for it.


Not necessarily. Acting is about a representation and entails many styles and kinds. It is unusual for acting to entail simply talking to a camera in a natural manner. You might note that newsreaders tend to have a restricted range of facial movement and expression when compared to someone acting. Someone portraying dismay in a comedic role is likely to do so very differently from someone portraying dismay in a dramatic role. Different camera angles, different cameras and other elements make various levels and styles of expression look different and often the aim is to create an overall mis en scene that conveys atmosphere and emotion. The face itself is only part of this and what works to covney emotion in one shot/scene/from a particular angle/perspective and with a particular capture device/focus, etc will not necessarily work the same way when these variables are altered.

In fact it's not improbable that some people with AS would be very good at performing in an acting capacity because they have had to explicitly learn to convey emotions/states of minds and are therefore better at controlling these things in a way that works well on film.

Also I note that you seem to be generalizing flattened expression as though it characterizes all people with an ASD (based on your comments that no one with an ASD would be a good actor). Some people with an ASD manifest flattened expression, some manifest gauche over the top expression, and some manifest both of these things. As no one symptom in the communication domain is necessary for a finding of AS for instance, it is possible (although in my view unlikely) that someone with an ASD could be uncharacterized by this particular symptom.


It's not impossible that there is a minor racial influencing component, but there is definately a cultural component. Amongst "caucasian cultures" there is a lot of variance in non-verbal dialect, just as there are variances in verbal language and variances in dialect within a language.