Kelly Hunter Representation Of Autism

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.

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

Bondy, A. S., & Frost, L. A. (1994). The picture exchange communication system. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 9(3), 1-19.

In “Carly’s Voice”, a book written by the father of an autistic child, the chapter “From the Horse’s Mouth” is Carly’s own words on her experience with autism. The challenge to understand autism comes from a lack of communication with autistic individuals but as Carly walks through her processing she explains her behaviours. The overstimulation that autistic individuals experience and the need for audio filtering, sorting out sensory information, helps tear down barriers of the view of what autistic individuals are capable of

References Altern, J. (2006). Abnormally High Plasma Levels of Vitamin 6 in Children with Autism Not Taking Supplements Compared to Controls not Taking Supplements. US National Library of Medicine. National Institute of Health. Complement Med, 12 (1), 59-63.

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.

Baker (2017) investigated the portrayal of autism in the media, particularly in newspapers. The analysis of the data revealed predominantly negative imagery when discussing autism and as a results, this negative representation of autism indeed affects the perception that the society holds. The research investigated the language used and topics discussed when mentioning autism. The results showed that more than 25 terms were negative when describing the situations the people with autism and the people that surrounds them experience. The examples include the words such as struggle, burden, problem, mental, etc. The results also showed that the topic of ‘Quality of life’ is in the special interest of the media. The majority of the articles were

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a range of complex neurodevelopment disorders, characterized by social impairments, communication difficulties, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior. There is more classification of Autism that is based on the severity of symptom. Childhood disintegrative disorder, also known as Heller 's syndrome is a rare condition characterized by a late onset of developmental delays in language, social function, and motor skills. Asperger Syndrome is a developmental disorder related to autism and characterized by higher than average intellectual ability coupled with impaired social skills and restrictive, repetitive patterns of interest and activities. Atypical Autism is the term used when the person has symptoms but don’t have all the symptoms to diagnose Autism. Atypical autism usually differs from autism in terms either of age of onset or of failure to fulfill all three sets of autism diagnostic criteria.

The media can have a huge impact on the way communication disorders are perceived and understood. In many instances, people are uninformed and have very little knowledge of the different types of communication disorders, and their only information may come from the media, such as movies or television shows. It is important that these media outlets are portraying such disorders appropriately and accurately to the viewers. In the movie, Rain Man, after the death of his father, a young man, Charlie, finds out he has a brother he has never met. His brother, Raymond, has autism.

According to “Autism’s Next Wave” by Lydia Denworth, scientists have discovered a new way to help people with autism. This groundbreaking discovery helps patients who suffer from autism, which is a disorder with no proven biological treatments. TMS, an acronym for transcranial magnetic stimulation, uses electromagnetic waves and a magnetic field to temporarily “fix” some patients’ autism symptoms by altering the way the patient’s brain cells communicate. This therapy is similar to electroconvulsive therapy, which was used in the 1930s to treat depression. Unlike electroconvulsive therapy (which used electric shocks to trigger seizures), TMS isn’t painful.

The documentary of Autism: The Musical showcases children who have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their families throughout a twenty two week program ending with a live performance. The documentary not only highlights the growth the children experience socially and emotionally throughout the program, but the challenges faced by the families and the strategies they employ to overcome them. There are five children focused on over the course of the documentary, Neil, Lexi, Henry, Adam, and Wyatt. Each child is at a different place on the spectrum therefore each family is effected differently by it. In fact each family can be seen at a different stage of acceptance ranging from sock, denial, anger, loneliness, sadness, to acceptance (Autism & Your Family, 2015). Lexi’s father Joe nicely describes some of the stages he experienced starting with denial which he said ended up taking over his whole life for a period of time, a period he describes as fix it mode, then depression because the parent realized that no amount of money or wishing can change the fact that the child has ASD and will always be living with it and finally comes acceptance.

For the purpose of this paper, I chose to analyze the communication disorder associated with ASD and the resulting social perceptions found in Stephen Daldry’s 2011 film Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Based off of the 2005 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, the film tells the story of a nine-year-old boy named Oskar Schell after his father, Thomas Schell, is killed in the World Trade Center during the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. The film follows Oskar on his emotional and later physical journey as he struggles to processes and accept his father’s sudden death as boy with strong autistic qualities. In this film, we are given the opportunity to better understand the emotions and mindsets commonly associated with autism and can therefore, better learn how to communicate with individuals like Oskar and to recognize their value and worth in society and this world.

In reviewing the required videos and reading on low incidence, there were a large range of how it affected individuals are processed by individuals without disabilities, these videos demonstrates what it is like to try to be normal with a disability. The first video called, Autistic Basketball Player,” presented an enlighten outcome, that people should not assume that individual with disability are not able to contribute to a job or sport. Jason Mcelwain’s a young man with Autism that id given to chase an individual with a disability self-worth is just as valuable as the rest of the team when it come to sport. The second video called, “Breaking Barriers of Autism: The power of Kindness and friendship present how individuals with disabilities are able to leap bounties id one person will acknowledge them. In his lecture he was able to present insight on how lonely it is on another side of the disability spectrum.

Mass media allows many people in society to understand different problems and receive news around the world. In the United States, mass media plays a big role in portraying stereotypes and creating stigmas, especially for people with disabilities. It can be very difficult for people who do not have a disability to portray the feelings of someone with a disability or understand how to create media that does not contain stereotypes of people with disabilities.