Post 2: autism

I believe that people who have autism have both a gift and a burden. They have a gift in that they can see the world in a different way from others but have a burden in that their needs are not always met by society. It is amazing how people with autism see the world and understand it in a different way than how I see things. Temple Grandin author of “Autism- The Way I See It” talks about how many autistic people see and think in pictures. Over the summer I worked with a little boy named Ethan as his A.B.A. Therapist and Mobile Aid for his summer camp. I saw him every day over the summer and a week after the program was done I went over his house to hang out with the family. I had worn my hair up every day at camp but that day I decided to wear my hair down to go to their house. At first Ethan didn’t seem to remember me and it took him a few minutes to figure out who I was and ask me to do things with him that we did over camp. His parents told me that he wasn’t used to seeing me with my hair up and, mentally, he was flipping through his picture book so see who I was. To see through pictures that could change on you seems like a scary thing but the fact that these pictures could be altered to match what was going on in the present was really cool to me.

Both Temple Grandin and Donna Williams mentioned created a more “ autism- friendly world”. They talk about how most of the people in today’s society learn and live in a visual world and how autism is separate from this visual world. I believe that people with autism are some of the brightest and most fascinating people in the world and with the growing number of people who are being born with autism shouldn’t it make sense to have programs and other things in the world that are autism- friendly? I agree with both authors that it is important to make people with autism a part of the community and cater to their needs even though they may not be the same needs as the majority of the world. I believe that by helping others we can help ourselves and improve eveyone’s way of living.