Life On The Spectrum By Howie Jord Speech Analysis

Understand how autistic spectrum conditions can impact on the lives of individuals and those around them.

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, a developmental disorder is becoming widely diagnosed here in the U.S. and throughout the world affecting children in all different types of backgrounds. From children living in rural or urban, rich or poor. Currently there are many speculations and superstitions as to the causes for developing autism but science has no clear evidence as to why autism affects certain people and not others, autism can greatly affect the families and its patients for their entire lives. Most of you do not know that I have twin younger brothers with Autism. Before this speech, I had no clue what autism really was. Through my research I am now able to relay this information to you. Today I want to talk about Autism. The three things I will be speaking about is what is Autism? How does autism affect the family and how does autism affect people who have it?

“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.

Understand how autistic spectrum conditions can impact on the lives of individuals and those around them

This paper from Doing Practicioner Research Differently, by Marion Dadds and Susan Hart, explores the way in which a researcher (Joseph Geraci) has entered into the world of several individuals living with autism, and has spent time observing and working with them in order to gain a better understanding of what it is like to live with autism, and the reasons behind why autistic individuals behave in some of the ways that they do.

Individuals with autism are often described in terms of the impairments, challenges and difficulties that affect them. When people hear the word ‘autism’, most of them automatically think of impaired communication and social interaction, of repetitive and often challenging behaviour. Others might think of sensory issues, echolalia, narrow range of interests and the lack of empathy, as well as weak central coherence and impairment of the theory of mind. The list can go on. The fact is, that one will almost certainly think of challenges and deficits rather than strengths when the word ‘autism’ is mentioned. The purpose of this essay is not to try and prove that the strengths of autism outweigh the challenges - that would simply be untrue. The purpose of this essay is to focus on the strengths, rather than the weaknesses of people with autism because identifying and promoting them can be beneficial for autistic individual’s development.

There is no doubt that raising a child with autism is challenging. There is endless research on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) but a very limited amount on the costs and benefits of caring for a person with the disorder. In order to gain a comprehensive perspective on the biggest challenges parents and caregivers of autistic children face, a look into the private lives of these families and close networks is necessary. The only way to give support and provide the much needed services required to help, one must ask them what the most difficult parts about managing autism are. Below examines three of the most common struggles these families face when trying to understand and help their autistic children develop into the capable people they are certainly able of becoming.

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

I was diagnosed with Autism when I was 2 years old and it has affected my entire life more than anything else I have experienced. It has impacted the way I socialize and communicate with people, the way I think and understand the world,and it also affected my speech and development when I was younger. Autism also affects the way other people see me and I’m often misunderstood. I don’t remember everything about my life at that time, but I do know that I struggled a lot to get to where I am today. I’m also aware that it will impact my future and force me to work harder than my peers. Even though I have Autism, I will always know that it doesn’t define who I am and that I will improve no matter what.

Every single day is a struggle for an autistic child and his or her family. Autism affects all aspects of a child’s life from their ability to show affection to their family to being able to do simple tasks such as communicating and thinking in ways that we take for granted. Autism is defined as a developmental disability in which children experience abnormalities in social functioning, language, often act in puzzling ways, and usually appears before the age of three (Mash &Wolfe, 2010). Although the exact causes of autism are unknown there does seem to be a strong genetic component. Having a child or family member with autism is a constant battle of emotion and frustration. Everyone wants to help the people they love when they have

At my high school, I participate in a club called Best Buddies. This club allows for students with intellectual disabilities to build one-on-one friendships with students without intellectual disabilities. My buddy’s name is Karissa, and she has autism. Being friends with her has changed my life for the better. Not only has she taught me the virtue of patience and to see the opportunity in every difficulty, but that labels are meant to be peeled off. Although others may laugh at her for what she cannot change, she refuses to let others define her by her autism. In a world that is constantly trying to tell her that she cannot be who she is, she continues

There are a lot of people who live with autism, and by the time they are adults, are able to take care of themselves. “My autism is the reason I’m in college and successful. It’s the reason I’m in math and science. It’s the reason I care,” (Jacob Barnett). Jacob is a math and physics prodigy, and he lives with autism. All over the internet there are stories about people with autism living normal, or even extraordinary lives. People who work with them learn to accept their quirks and eventually realize that they can function just as well as anyone else. This is one example of someone who learned how to overcome the issues that autism presents, and go on to be something really special.

The five themes: social spectrum, communication, difficulty, repetition/memorization, and cruel/ignorance/assumption, could help explain how people think of those who have autism because perceptions helps gain a different perspective from the actual literature. Some of these themes support the general research question about how those who have autism are perceived. The themes social spectrum, communication, and difficulty benefit to uncover the way those with autism are perceived and how people feel about them. Autism spectrum disorder has been found that socializing is much easier with friends than with someone if autistic children knew them from somewhere such as school (Kuo et al., 2011). During interviews with children who have autism spectrum disorder found socializing much harder to show their personality,

Students with autism have difficulties expressing these feelings because of the limited exposure to forms of communication at a young age. Also, the unwillingness to change is a sad reality that students with autism handle throughout the years of growing up. No matter how much they would want to accept their disorder, there is always hope for an easier life. The struggles of autism vary between the severity of each case, but the movement towards each student’s fullest potential has to start at a young age.