Bad Words. My Son Welcomed Me With The Biggest Smile.I

I bet you’ve seen at least one before. You know, those articles on the news about someone with autism, doing something amazing that any typical person would never envision them doing. Getting elected homecoming king, being on a cheerleading team, or carrying out an act of kindness that even non-autistic people wouldn’t ever consider are just some of the things that I’ve seen. Though these are spectacular self-esteem lifters for these individuals, warm and fuzzy stories for the public and excellent publicity for wherever they occur, many often forget that autism is a spectrum condition, and functioning levels vary, from wheelchair bound individuals to those in society whose names everyone recognizes.

Stereotypes tend to be made by those who lack understanding whether is unintentional or not. Understanding is the key to accepting and valuing all differences. Whether it is about our race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or whatever else makes up an individual’s identity. It is this lack of understanding that normally leads to stereotyped views, prejudice and discrimination. This sadly is mostly the case for those with autistic spectrum conditions and has a large affect on not only the

Let’s say you have a box of crayons. It represents ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), now inside the box you have different colors of crayons. Each color/crayon is a different disorder. The color we want to talk about today is teal, the official color for autism. Stuart Duncan once said, “Autism, like a rainbow, has a bright side and a dark side and even though it can mean rough waters it can be beautiful.” Autism isn’t a label, it’s a diagnoses. People with autism can be just as successful as neurotypical people. People with autism have been the subject of stereotypes and neglect for decades. Only in the last 150 years or so have things started to change. We don’t know what causes autism, but thanks to increased research and awareness we’re making more progress than ever. People with autism face many challenges everyday, autism is a spectrum. It’s not the same for everyone. Due to it being a spectrum it can be hard for people without autism to understand the challenges autistic people face, and how to go about interacting with autistic people. There are lots of autistic people worldwide, it’s time we start making them feel more like people.

To begin, the autistic community has many different ways of communication that works for everyone that they interact with. One of those ways they have worked past their barriers of communication is using sign language. This enables anyone who doesn’t have a voice, or is unable to express their feelings and opinions using words, to show their emotions using a different way of language. Another barrier that is faced by the autistic community is that while our society is heavily based on using tone of voice and body language to communicate our feelings and our reactions to certain situations. The problem that arises from this is that people diagnosis with autism, do not pick up on social cues and are unable to use the same body language

Autism has been made to seem like this huge issue, something that needs to be stopped. While there are many issues that come with autism, it is not something that should be getting such negative attention. People with autism seem to be the most extraordinary out of any of us. “They are usually intelligent, gifted, honest, hard workers when interested in a task and excellent problem solvers. People with high-functioning autism are thought to become excellent scientists and engineers or enter other professions where painstaking, methodical analysis is required. Some believe this particular assertion is a stereotype, as some high-functioning autism adults tend to struggle with the traditional work setting and the surrounding societally accepted ways of behaving,” (Synapse, Pg 2). There

They are as much par t of our society and communities as anyone else. Access to right services and information can help people with autism achieve their goals and help them to lead as independent lives as possible.

Autism is a disorder that I seem to hear more about every day. I hear about it on the television news, in news articles online, and even personal blogs that I read. It seems that everyone has some knowledge of autism and most people know someone personally that it affects. As far as my own personal knowledge and experience of the disorder, I learned it at camp. I have volunteered many years for at Camp Tik-A-Witha. This camp provides a week long session for children with special needs (mental and physical handicaps) called Elizabeth Gwin Session. While volunteering at camp, I have seen children with blindness, Cerebral Palsy, Down syndrome, and autism.

Autism is a very complex disorder that deals with social behavior. People with Autism can have many different stages of Autism ranging anywhere from high functioning (people that act more normal and have less noticeable symptoms), moderately functioning (people with autism that are more noticeable than people who are high functioning, tend to have more ticks, but can cope and adapt more than low functioning), and low functioning (people with autism that more often than not do not talk, more noticeable symptoms, more ticks, and have a hard time copping and adapting). With there being

ociety often has a misunderstood perception of individuals that carry autism. People infer that these autistic individuals are ignorant or sometimes even refer to them as retarded, they treat them as if they’re completely oblivious to what is actually going on around them, and they put these individuals at a lower ranking than ourselves. People that have this disorder are often mocked or called names. The world looks at them as ignorant, incapable vegetables, when in reality, they’re actually geniuses and masterminds. Autism does not make people that carry it stupid or even retarded, it doesn’t deprive them of intelligence, and it doesn’t make them any dumber than you and I. Carriers of autism usually only lack in their social skills rather than their intellectual skills. Autism is a severe disorder that hinders carriers of it to be able to communicate and socially interact with others

When reading the first chapter of Ten Things Every Child with Autism wishes you Knew by Ellen Notbohm, multiple thoughts ran through my head. I honestly feel that she did an excellent job expressing the thoughts about autism. In my point of view autism is so much more than a diagnosis. Two important people in my life have autism and honestly, they are the most amazing individuals I have ever met. The authors words that brought tears to my eyes was, “My autism is part of who I am, not all of who I am” (Notbohm 17). This statement moved me, because individuals with autism are so much more than a label. Individuals that have autism are talented, intelligent, caring, kind, and funny. We should not judge or treat an individual different by the way they express themselves. Each individual is unique and should be able to express themselves in their personal way instead of being labeled in a negative way. I have personally encounter individuals use words such as, “that autistic boy” or “just leave him other there, he doesn’t understand the material because he is autistic”. When I hear people says these negative things, it makes me angry and sad, because I believe that they have not fully comprehended the diagnosis as well as not allow themselves to get to know

To eliminate bias and hatred against autistic or differently abled children and individuals, it is important to educate the masses about the endless possibilities autistic people are born with.

Autism is a mental disability that develops as the individual grows and develops, it changes the way they view the world and how they interact and understand people, it affects each individual differently due to it being a spectrum disability meaning that there are many forms ranging from atypical autism to high functioning autism this makes it very hard to fully understand it due to a lot of differences. There are around 1 in 100 people who are classed to be on the spectrum, that equals to around 700,000 people within the United Kingdom and it affects more men than women, some people with autism will be able to function within society with slight support from the family, school and work whereas some will need specialist support throughout their whole life this is because there is no cure for autism their parents/ carers have to try to get the care and support they need to overcome challenges that people without autism take

Suggesting that autism is not a disorder, but rather simply a different way of seeing the world is a completely novel way to see it. Knowing a few people who are on the autism spectrum, I find it difficult to accept this view entirely, but I think that the same idea which we discussed with regards to ADD may be applicable here. It is not a disability in itself, but only once it begins to interfere with a person's life that it is a disability. As well, consulting people with autism (or any other disability) about what they need in classrooms is a good first step towards building an inclusive classroom.

The devolvement of social isolation in children with autism. This has become a very open topic in thus new age society, living in a generation that everything has to be given or made available right here and right now. Knowing that this new generation is all about social acceptance we often have to take the time to ask the question, where does the children with disabilities fit in this social media raven? How do we as their peers make them feel accepted? It is most evident that we as people frown down upon people that may be different from what we are used to seeing. Autism is a mental disorder that include limited social abilities and highly patterned behavior. Just knowing that little piece of information we can or will make our own assumption that people with autism are not capable of talking, playing or even learning the things that a normal peer their age would or could learn.

I have been active within the field of education for over a decade. During this time I been apart of serving students anf families from diverse educational, socioeconomic, cultural, religious, and political backgrounds. There are a few bits of wisdom that have proven invaluable working with diverse student, staff, families, and communities. There is a saying in the field of Autism, "if you know one person with Autsim, then you know one person with Autism." So often we assume individuals from the same race/ethnicity, religion, community, culture, or a myriad of other categorical labels are all the same. This is ignorance, whether it is an individual with an educational/medical label of Autism or a cultural group, each human being is unique and can not simply be summed up by the specific