Personal Narrative: Lillianna Tested Positive For Autism

“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.

In Catherine Maurice’s novel “Let Me Hear Your Voice: A Family’s Triumph Over Autism” Marc and Catherine Maurice are the parents of three children, two of which, Anne Marie and Michel, have autism, whereas the eldest of the three children, Daniel, does not. Catherine Maurice first had Daniel, and all was well with him, as it was for her second child, Anne Marie, at least for a little while. Between the time Anne Marie turned one and when she turned two, her parents started to notice some behaviors that were not normal, like repeating behaviors, or a lack of communication skills. They receive a diagnosis of autism for Anne Marie and their world is turned upside down. They go to a number of doctors and are presented with the same bleak outlook from each one. Catherine however decided to search for her own answers and discovers behavioral therapy, and hires a therapist named Bridget to work with Anne Marie. As well as Bridget, Catherine found a supporter of holding therapy, Dr. Welch. With intense training, Anne Marie begins to move away from some of her problem behaviors. At first, Catherine believed that Dr. Welch’s holding therapy was the answer, but she eventually realized that Dr. Welch was a self serving therapist that was more concerned with her own status. As things are finally beginning to improve for the family, Catherine starts to worry about her next child, Michel. At first, the concern level was relatively low due to the fact that Michel was more outgoing and

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?

The Case of Temple Grandin paints a picture of a young woman’s determination and hard work while struggling with autism during a time when the disorder was unknown. This case discusses Grandin’s challenges, early diagnosis, growth and development in school, and support from her mother. Temple Grandin could not speak like the other children at the age of two, so because doctors could not find any physical issues she had been subsequently labeled as brain-damaged. To communicate with others, she would throw tantrums and scream. She could speak by three and a half years old with the help of speech therapy. A few years later at the age of five, Grandin was diagnosed with autism so her mother worked with her 30

Before entering into the facts and figures dealing with autism, she establishes the fact that she

Ms. Diaz-Harrison has a daughter and she chose to put her in a charter school that specialized in the arts because that fit her daughter’s needs. For her son, who has autism she had no idea where she was going to put him at for school. Ms. Diaz-Harrison decided to open her on charter school in Phoenix. This school was named Arizona Autism Charter School. Her exact words when opening the school was, “we didn’t have a school like that-now we do!”

The book “Rules” by Cynthia Lord sparked my interest right away because I was interested in learning more about autism. Every year my parents volunteer to help with a Christmas event at one of the local schools for children with autism. I would always volunteer to go along with them because I enjoyed meeting and doing Christmas activities with the children. The smiles on their faces and the reactions to seeing Santa was beautiful. I knew when coming into the OTA field that I wanted to eventually be able to work with children, especially those with autism because of the wonderful experiences I had volunteering every year.

When I flipped through the pages and read the words it seemed that David illness took a backburner to Catherine need for normalcy. David, seem to be shoved onto his sister to babysit, the responsibility of caring for someone with special needs, is not fit for a 12-year-old girl. Catherine parents, both seem to have some avoidance issues, their mother worked from home or made calls as she pushed David on the swing and she used valuable time with her daughter to sit in a waiting room. Their father neglected his family responsibilities with gardening and work, he took David to the video store every day at five. But, even that cause unnecessary stress for the kids because their father lacked the ability to be on time. One of Catherine’s rules was, “Late doesn’t mean not coming,” and I think for most people that would be acceptable. But, individuals with Autism set schedule as a way of life and having the schedules or rules broken can be very traumatic. Those are the things we should aim to teach others about

The mind of an autistic person is fascinating and frightening because usually their actions can’t accurately express what their brain is thinking. It is frustrating to try and determine what a child with autism is trying to say, and often results in them being misunderstood. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, tells the story from the perspective of Christopher Boone, a fifteen year old boy with autism. Chris is brilliant at math and science, but is unable to understand or express emotion. His difficult home life further contributes to his illness; he doesn’t have anyone at home who supports him and tries to help him. His teacher, Siobhan, is his only friend and the only person who tries to help him learn to

Autism Speaks. (2012). The Federal Response to Autism. Retrieved June 17, 2012, from HYPERLINK "http://www.autismspeaks.org" http://www.autismspeaks.org.

`Autism is a complex disorder with impairments include difficulty with communication, difficulty with social interactions, obsessive interests, and repetitive behaviors.  Autism is a sensitive topic with disorder covers a variety of symptoms, skills, and levels of impairment.  This book has two characters with autism, but doesn’t over exaggerate the topic. Jason’s and David’s speech therapy teachers try as hard as they can to make them as normal as possible, but changing people is not easy for the teachers and Jason and David. Although they seem to have no interest in speech therapy, and communicates fine without speech. That both David and Jason are forced to try to be as “normal” as possible, and that this is never criticized, is something

While a mother was escaping an abusive relationship in search of welfare assistance, she took her thirteen-year-old daughter along with her. “Genie,” as she was called, intrigued the social worker in the welfare office. She was mesmerized by Genie’s posture, size, and stance. Curiously enough, the worker thought Genie might have been a case of unreported autism in a possible six- to seven-year-old (Rymer 1993). As a result, the worker notified her supervisor, who contacted the police.

But it also provides profound insight into a disorder—autism—that leaves those who have it struggling to perceive even the most basic of human emotions. In so doing, The Curious Incident leaves its readers with a greater appreciation of their own ability to feel, express, and interpret emotions. This mainstream literary success made its way to the top of the New York Times bestseller list for fiction at the same time it was being touted by experts in Asperger's syndrome and autism-spectrum disorder as an unrivaled fictional depiction of the inner workings of an autistic teenage

My childhood and adolescent years before college were an endless roadway that has gone through a long cycle of straightaways and turns. Since I was a toddler, I have lived my life with a condition that is common in an intermediate percentage of other toddlers known as autism. Ever since my diagnosis, every moment of my life has always been something different than the moments that have happened before. The road of my life would always stay straight when I would develop into a change that would remain constant for a while, and would often turn for a healthier or poorer moment of my life whenever it would happen. The path my life’s road would travel through depends on the temporary or permanent alterations that would occur in me, whether physically, mentally or socially. My road’s path also

Like a long roadway, my childhood and adolescent years prior to college have gone through a long cycle of straightaways and turns. I was diagnosed with autism when I was about a year and a half old. Ever since my diagnosis, every new moment of my life has always been something different than the moments that have happened before. Sometimes the road of my life would always stay straight when I would develop into a change that would remain constant for a while, and would frequently make turns for an even better or even worse moment of my life whenever it would happen. The path my life’s road would take is dependent on the temporary or permanent changes that would occur in me, whether physically, mentally or socially, as well as all of the defining moments that I have been through over the years, leading up to attending UMass Lowell for the first time.