Curious And Experientialism

Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism was written by Temple Grandin and originally published in 1995 in New York by Doubleday. The edition that I purchased was published in 2010 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. This book was written as an autobiography about Grandin’s life as an autistic child and adult. It also includes general information about autism, reference based medical information, effects and symptoms of autism, and possible treatment plans. In this expanded addition, Grandin included updates after every chapter that provides up-to-date information on research, medications, and Asperger’s syndrome.

“Work to view my autism as a different ability rather than a disability. Look past what you may see as limitations and see the gifts autism has given me…Be my advocate, be my friend, and we’ll see just how far we can go” –Ellen Botbohm, author of Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew.

Temple Grandin’s autobiographical book, Thinking in Pictures, opened the door that revealed the true aspects of autism. The author, who is an autistic woman, portrayed autism not as a complicated developmental disorder but as a unique characteristic that is a compliment to society. To break apart from society’s stereotype on autistic individuals, Temple focused her book on issues such as how her disorder was initially misdiagnosed, her issues with learning acceptable behavior and social cues, her connection with animal minds, sensory sensitivities, and explored the possible treatments with medication.

When people are growing up, being normal was the way to be cool. Everyone wants to be like everybody else and that’s the way it goes. What children and many adults still don’t understand is that being different and having diversity is a good thing. It is ok to be different, especially in today 's society. Being able to acknowledge that diversity and disability in everyday life and seeing the good in it will help bring together our society. For my next three paragraphs i 'm going to discuss what it was like to be an outsider, when I experienced diversity and an experience I have had with disability

1. Understand how the different and evolving theories about autism reflect the complexity of autistic spectrum conditions

Before completing the assignment of reading “Thinking in Pictures,” by Temple Grandin, I did not have much knowledge about autism. My only understanding was autism was some sort of neurological disorder that is seen similar to mentally handicapped individuals to someone with little understanding, like myself. I am very thankful to have been given an assignment like this one that gives me more knowledge of something I should already have in my line of work (though I am sure that was the whole purpose of the assignment, to educate the ignorant). I now have a better understanding of the cause, learning process and functioning of different levels of this defect.

E: I had two friends that had autism, and they were so different. One seemed to be very hyperactive and loud, while the other one seemed to be more clam. It was interesting to see the differences in my two friends and how autism can effect people differently.

I find that the movie portrayed an accurate representation of someone who has autism. The movie is relatively accurate to what my grandmother goes through with taking care of a child with autism.

The forth chapter of the Curious Researcher is filled with tons of valuable information. In the beginning of the chapter, Ballenger talks about how its greatly beneficial to include yourself into your essay and says you don't necessarily have to include the word "I." He explains that the author of the paper has the decision of whether or not to include the word “I”. I thought that this was very intriguing due to the fact he stated that, it is very easy to use the word "I" repeatedly. He explains when you do that when writing an essay, your essay can sound very repetitive like it were a list or a bibliography and the reader could easily become bored from reading it. Another point Ballenger talked about was procrastination. Procrastination

The set of books I chose to read were Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine and Rules by Cynthia Lord. Both of the books had a main character that was in some way related to autism. In the book, Rules the main character was the sister to a person with autism. Both books are told from a first person perspective. In Rules the main character's brother, David has high functioning autism and she has to take him to the clinic with her mother so he can have his therapy appointment. She feels neglected because the parents spend a lot of time with David. But in the book Mockingbird the main character has high functioning autism and her brother recently got shot and killed, she does not know how to react. This book also helps the reader understand why she

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.

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

There were many different characteristics of the disorder displayed from beginning to end of the film. The only issue I can see is that people who are unfamiliar with the disorder, may assume that everyone who has autism will behave the exact same way as Raymond did, which is not true. Raymond seemed to have a pretty moderate to severe case of ASD and others’ cases could be very mild. Other than that, it was interesting to watch a movie focusing on a communication disorder and showing the relationship between someone with autism and someone who is very unfamiliar with the

This breakthrough Hollywood film is based on the real-life story of Raymond Babbitt, played by Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman’s performance enabled his character to assert his presence with the intensity which helped humanize not only his self-centered brother Charlie, played by Tom Cruise but also the audience. This allowed us to better understand how individuals with autism perceive the world. This success of this file enabled the use of this film as an assessment for measuring how succeeding depictions of autism have changed or remained the same.

There are four different sources of knowledge: perception, introspection, reason and memory. All our knowledge roots from our perception. Perception is the way humans sense the world outside the body. We perceive through our five senses: see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Humans gain knowledge through experiences and experience through perception. Usually we can trust our senses to perceive our surroundings effectively but there are times we misperceive. Illusions, hallucinations or impediments of the accurate flow of information to our senses are examples of misperceptions. For example if someone hits their head causing their vision to blur or impedes them from effectively processing what occurring around them, then they shouldn’t trust their senses. Another example would be an anxiety attack causing a signal of threat to the brain also preventing the person from correctly processing their surroundings. If nothing can prove we are misperceiving then we have good reason to be believe our senses.