Autism’s First Child

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/10/autismand8217s-first-child/8227

by pg • 16 years ago

111 29 16 years ago

theatlantic.com

10ren• 16 years ago

I always enjoy theatlantic submissions here; this one is really sweet.

single page (also js-free!) http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2010/10/autism-821...

pigbucket• 16 years ago

It's a meaningful submission, from that submitter, on a day of massive HN introspection.

frossie2• 16 years ago

Reading this really makes me want to recommend the Norwegian movie Elling - it's witty, completely unschmaltzy and hints at a pretty good answer on what good care for adult mentally challenged folk looks like.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0279064/

It's streamable on Netflix for the US-based folks:

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Elling/60025098

startup_spouse7• 16 years ago

I'm really curious. What about reading this article made you think of Elling and what you refer to as "mentally challenged folk"?

Maybe I'm missing something (I haven't seen the movie, but from the imdb link you posted, no mention of autism)... but it seems to me like you're saying "having autism = being mentally challenged". Am I misinterpreting? I hope so :(

nkurz• 16 years ago

Watch the movie first. The description doesn't really do it justice.

Separately, though, if you ignore some of the connotations, it does seem fair to call autism a "mental challenge".

frossie2• 16 years ago

The article refers to the fate of adult autistic children when their parents die. The movie's character relates to a person in similar circumstances - his mother dies and a social worker places him in sheltered then independent accomodation.

I apologise if the phrase "mentally challenged" was offensive or inappropriate (the English language never fails to trip me up). As far as I can recall, the movie does not identify the specific developmental disability, but the main character engages in obsessive and ritualistic behaviours and has a number of challenges with fully integrating in society. His friend has different issues. The movie has a very positive message, as had the OP. I encourage you to judge by yourself rather than read the IMDB description. If you feel I have misrepresented it, I am interested in your views, my contact details are in my profile.

The real issue, I thought, is what is the appropriate level of state intervention / social support in circumstances where the parents-caregivers pass on.

Mz3• 16 years ago

Some people with autism are severely mentally retarded. In fact, classic Kanner's syndrome (the original autism) generally also means severe mental retardation. Other people are labeled "high functioning autistic" (also called "Asperger's Syndrome") and can be very intelligent but have some challenges in areas like social skills. Still, most their social difficulties are, essentially, a form of being mentally challenged. Though there are some exceptions. For example, the folks who are also faceblind (fairly common among autistics) face social challenges due to their difficulties recognizing people, which is different from just not understanding the social stuff but has a similar outcome.

(Both my kids fit the profile for ASD. No formal diagnosis.)

someperson2• 16 years ago

"Certain words and phrases captivated him, and he would loop them aloud endlessly: trumpet vine, business, chrysanthemum. "

I want to know more about this idea.

I think we can agree that words like BIZ-en-Ness and CHRYS-ant-THENUM have a strange ring to them compared to the rest of the English language when pronounced aloud. (Also that word, "ALOUD")

From my experience, I'd expect most people as kids had at least one pet words that had nice ring.

dbrannan4• 16 years ago

Aluminum!

McP• 16 years ago

Aluminium!

sp332• 16 years ago

Some people get songs stuck in their heads, I get words or phrases looping over and over. Sometimes I'll get both a song and a word repeating in separate loops at the same time! I think it's a similar mechanism though, it's a lack of closure. I believe they repeat because my brain is looking for connections, or trying to learn something from it. The annoying ones are when I can't remember the ending of a song, so the middle keeps looping over and over. Or if I can't quite remember the definition of a word, very annoying. The best ones are the ones I can remember all of the tune but it surprises me every time.

Edited for clarity.

jacquesm2• 16 years ago

To me the annoying ones are the ones I can't seem to get rid of, no matter how hard I try. I've got the a short vocal fragment from an Annie Lennox song stuck in my head for days at the moment so I feel very connected to what you just wrote.

todayiamme• 16 years ago

The problem with most conventional approaches to those who deviate from the norm is to put them in boxes and label them, but they're human beings! This outlook directly results in dissociation from them and confining them to the label of other-ness.

On the other hand it is very, very rare to find complete therapy for an autistic child in most countries. It takes a lot of patience to teach such children, or adults anything. Unfortunately, if someone has a conventional model of behavior in their minds then they tend to get really angry really fast. So, what if we could make something, an interactive toy, that taught these skills to children?

I've always wanted to make touch sensitive panels with a display on them to teach kids vital social skills through play. If we make them smart enough to encourage safe interaction then it should be possible to teach social interaction skills at an early stage, but to do any of this we need to move beyond the disorder model and cookie-cutter attempts of making such kids fit in.

Why? In the conventional point of view Donald could never have a future like this and, hence, there's no point of even trying which is simply heartbreaking. I believe that there should be a path for such children which goes beyond such things. They're unique and no matter how different from the norm they may be. They deserve to be loved and cherished for who they are. Not who we want them to be.

dbrannan4• 16 years ago

All the best people are slightly different.

rue• 16 years ago

All people are slightly different.

bootload• 16 years ago

"... their lack of interest in people, their fascination with objects, their need for sameness, their keenness to be left alone ..."

which can be experienced when you are working on some code, trying to make bug-free and of course someone has to come over and start a conversation...

"... The rules keep changing on me. Every time I think I learn a new rule, you change it on me ..."

Psychology gives you the tools, observation the environment.

jacquesm2• 16 years ago

Autism is a gradual thing, not a binary thing. It's not you have it or yo don't there is a whole spectrum of the levels that people exhibit and it can go from being an advantage at times to rendering it impossible for an individual to function normally in our society.

People with a physical disability have a whole lobbying system in place to force society to make room for them, mentally challenged people, by their very nature, do not have anything that compares and likely never will.

Autism’s First Child

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