Ellen Notbohmm Analysis

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.

“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.

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.

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

Autism. A simple word with so much meaning and mystery behind it. Autism is so much more than developmental disorder it’s a normal way of life for 1% of the United States population. Autism is a developmental disorder that impairs the ability to communicate or interact. The disorder begins to show itself when children are around 2-3 years old. Children who have this disorder can have symptoms such as troubling talking/delayed speech, sensory issues, little to no social interaction and repetition of words/actions. The range of severity for the disorder can vary. For the past week I have been reading articles about people who suffer from this disorder. One person's story has affected me understanding of the disorder.Stephen Wiltshire is a 44 year old man who has Autism however instead of letting the disorder impact his life he uses it to create brilliant works of art. By reading about Stephen and seeing how he overcomes his struggles my outlook on life has changed.

Interacting with people with disabilities, should be judged based on the person in front of us instead of based on stereotypes created through arts. Creigh, a college student who grew up with an Autistic younger sister, Caley in her article “I CANNOT CALL MY SISTER CUTE: AUTISM AND INFANTILIZATION” explains, “Caley’s got a sticker stuck to the door of her bedroom which reads, ‘When you see, meet, or think about a person with a disability, PRESUME COMPETENCE” (Creigh, 1). Competence the ability to do something successfully or efficiently. Throughout the arts people who have autism are being portrayed as cute, and due to this have to deal with the ways “normal people” see, meet or think about them. People within the autistic spectrum are inaccurately portrayed as “cute” in the arts.

The issue that is in our world today would be that there is not enough education presented to the public about autism, as well as any or all special needs. Everyone should in some way be educated about these things, at least in a generalized aspect. There are so many families that have a child in their lives who struggle with a disorder that they have no control over, it takes control of them. It is very typical for families to go out with one another, to shop or eat. Environments as such may be an everyday thing to an atypical person. However, everything is heightened to an individual with autism. This causes an overstimulation for an individual, which ultimately results in misconduct. One common thing amongst these individuals is that how they look physically may not represent how they think mentally. For someone from the outside looking in on a situation, seeing someone with a physical characteristic one way, yet behaving another looks absurd. We as a society need to change people’s understanding of the functionality of a person on the spectrum. A negative response can affect this individual’s behavior, take someone approaching them in the wrong way, and ultimately not comprehend a situation correctly. Autism awareness should be understood unanimously, offering people the right education, getting them to be compassionate, and simply showing manners there would be much more respect shown to people with autism.

Autism is defined as, “A complex neurobehavioral disorder that includes impairments in social interaction and developmental language and communication skills and rigid, repetitive behaviors. The disorder covers a large spectrum of symptoms, skills, and levels of impairment. It ranges in severity from a handicap that limits an otherwise normal life to a devastating disability that may require institutional care.” (Melillo, 1)

In 1994 my oldest sister, Christina, was born. She was always peculiar and could never understand or read social cues. When she began puberty, these traits intensified. As an adult, we discovered that she had high functioning, level 1, autism. When I first received a job offer to work with Jake, a 10 year-old autistic student, I believed he would be extremely similar to my sister with the same personality traits and struggles. However, to know one autistic individual is just that, knowing one singular autistic individual. My work and observations of Jake have moved me to consider autism in a new light. With so many adversary stereotypes surrounding autism, I was faced with a sweet little boy who merely needed a little extra help, if only the

Many people don’t know, or understand what Autism truly is. Autism is defined as, according to (What is Autism?) “Autism, or autism spectrum disorder, refers to a range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication, as well as by unique strengths and differences. We now know that there is not one autism but many types, caused by different combinations of genetic and environmental influences.”

I truly feel empathy for every family that has to deal with the challenges presented by this disorder. There are still many people who believe that it’s just kids being spoiled by their parents and discipline is all that’s needed to cure an autistic child. There are still many people who will turn their nose up and act irritated when an autistic child is acting strange in public. I know my mom hates taking my brother out because of the stares. For every story of compassion toward an autistic child there is a thousand stories of intolerance. Society just does not know what to do. Autism is becoming more and more prevalent and we don’t have the therapists and specialists to keep up and as this generations autistic children get older I don’t know what is going to happen to them. Not every one of those 1 in 68 children need total care, but I’m afraid that those who do won’t be cared for, certainly not with compassion. As the parents get too old and the kids are left behind what happens? Do we have space for all of them? The support for parents with autistic kids is just not there. If you yell at the school enough you might get something, but it’s tiring. I understand that a lot of parents get tired of having to fight constantly to get any kind of help. I hope that in the years to come the government continues to make strides to truly help disabled children. Many of them can take care of themselves and even work if given the right support and training, but this is something that has to be done early it can’t wait until the individual is eighteen and unable to do anything. I’ve been really impressed by the efforts to promote autism awareness in the last few years and I hope that these efforts will promote understanding and sympathy in people, so that my brother and others like him can go to the park or a restaurant without being treated like a blight on

“My little boy now five was diagnosed with autism in August … while we were shopping he threw a tantrum. He was rolling around on the floor, running off, and he hit me twice … people are staring, looking at me with horrible looks and some even laughing.” (Ambitious about Autism). Autism affects 1 in 68 children, it is a very broad disability and everyone on the spectrum is unique. Autism is a mental disorder that affects the way people act in social situations and how they respond to their surroundings. Unawareness of autism is a very prevalent problem in our world, especially to those who experience it firsthand. To be more specific, this lack of knowledge is a problem because it has led to many untrue stereotypes being formed about autism,

Think about how you feel when you have to give a presentation in school; how you feel when you have to hug people, or how you feel when the power goes out at home. For an autistic child, these things that seem normal can be their worst nightmare. A few months ago I started babysitting an eight year old autistic boy named Callum. Some cases of autism are much more severe than others, and Callum happened to be on the more severe side of things. He was such a sweet boy, and the short time I spent with him opened my mind immensely, it even made me a less judgemental person altogether. In a way, my experience has made me want to inform others on autism because I have noticed that not many people understand it. It is one of the fastest growing disorders in the United States. Sometimes, when people would ask what I did as a job, I would tell them I babysit Callum, an autistic boy. Often times, their response to that would be, “what even is autism?”

parents should be proud of their children with autism because they look like flowers, and they should know that no one is perfect ,and everyone has flaws and lack of different aspects, and there is no stigma attached with autism, and this an autistic child will grow up someday and will have a big

For the two teachers I observed over the semester, they share something in common which speaks toward their students and that is kindness. Kindness which is a universal language that cuts through every kind of impairment. It is a language that the students with autism can feel, the deaf can hear, and the blind can see.