The Characteristics Of Oskar And His Father's Communication Disorder

In the article, “How to Speak Asperger’s,” by Fran Goldfarb and Guthrie Devine, the authors contend that learning to communicate with people with Asperger’s Syndrome is an important skill. The authors introduce the article by providing a narrative about Goldfarb’s son. The point of her narrative is that communication is misunderstood with people with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS). The author, Fran Goldfarb, explains how her son misunderstands communication with his teachers, and how punishment is ineffective, because of his Asperger’s. The authors start by explaining why communication is very complex. To begin with, people with AS struggle with communication, because of their lack of social cues. They tend to miss irony, humor, and they take everything literally. That’s why people with AS don’t understand communication and everything is a struggle for them.

It’s heavily implied (although not stated directly) that Oskar suffers from depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues, as well as autism, and these struggles are referenced frequently throughout the book in the form of metaphors. In the limousine on the way to his father’s funeral at the beginning of the book, Oskar is chastised by his mother and thinks, “She could tell that I was zipping up the sleeping bag of myself, and I could tell that she didn’t really love me.” (Foer, pg. 6) In this sentence, Oskar is attempting to express to the reader that he’s retreating within himself, closing himself off, internalizing these deep emotions in the wake of something tragic and painful. He’s already been hurt deeply by the death of his father, and the disapproval of his mother compounds this hurt, leading him to retreat and miscommunicate. Even though he’s physically talking (in fact, Oskar is extremely chatty for most of the limousine ride), Oskar is unable to express any of the big feelings that he’s experiencing because he’s been hurt and he’s attempting to protect

Another example of Oskar showing ‘Shock and Denial’ is when he’s in the store and he looks at a piece of paper where they write their names to see what the color of the ink looks like. While Oskar is looking at it , he see’s his dad’s name on it, written in red ink. Oskar is shocked that it’s on there and denies and feels sad about it. When he looks at it, without hesitation, Oskar asked the manager when did his dad write that and other questions like, ‘why’ and ‘how’ could he go to that store just to write his name on everything. Oskar tried to make him believe that his dad went to the store.

The week before he brings in the interview, he brings in his cat and shows that they can fall from great heights without hurting themselves because they make their body into a parachute. The reader can see that not only this but many other actions of Oskar’s show that he is attempting to figure out a way to justify his dad’s death but at the same time find closure. Oskar is obviously alluding this special power of cats to his father, imagining that his father fell out of the building and would have been able to survive the fall if he was like a cat. The reader knows this because we see a picture that Oskar obsesses over of a man falls off a building with the same shape of the cat when they fall, only upside down. Oskar cannot think about anything else but his father, and this is shown by literally all of his actions. He also cancels his appointments and misses school to travel all over the boroughs of New York with strangers to find a match to a key he finds in his dad’s study, instead of asking his mother. The reader sees Oskar struggle with his dad’s death, but never in this type of

high-functioning form of Autism where people have poor social and communication skills, and his parents knew he would have a challenge developing relationships.

Moreover, Christopher cannot understand other people’s emotions and many other things, so, therefore, he struggles with numerous problems that a person without Asperger Syndrome would not experience. The train station is exceptionally hard for him to travel through, which is proven when he states,“... the back of someone's jacket touched my knee and I felt sick and I started groaning really loudly and the lady on the bench stood up and no one else sat down” (Haddon 175-176). A reader would not have as many problems traveling through a train station, so, therefore, it is interesting to see Christopher’s point of view. In addition, albeit Christopher’s condition inducing him to make most of his decisions, the novel’s central purpose is to not explore Asperger Syndrome because there is not much focus put on his condition and the words “Autism” and “Asperger Syndrome” are never used.

Since the understanding of psychiatric disorders have becomes more common in population, art pieces like movies and novels began use people with some extent psychiatric disorders as their main characters. In Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise’s movie Rain man, Dustin portrayed a man called Raymond, and be diagnosed as autism. The movie present his experience with his brother which portrayed by Tom. According to The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed,; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013), Raymond is diagnosed as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This paper will describe the symptoms on DSM-5 accompany Raymond’s behaviors in the movie. Moreover, biological, psychological, and social factors could influence ASD’s development in variance ways. The suggested treatment will also be discussed.

Another trait he observed in the four children was that they had a certain interest that they were obsessed with in a sense and it dominated their conversations with other people. He called the condition “autistic psychopathy” he said it was a personality disorder that’s main symptom was social isolation. Asperger’s wasn’t widely known until 1981. Children with Asperger’s (AS) will get a huge amount of information about whatever their favorite subject is. These people who have AS aren’t able to always control the volume of their voice based on the environment surrounding them, e.g., libraries, movie theaters, etc. Also, a wide selection of children with AS are very active as young kids. But then as a young adult they begin to be depressed or anxious.

Oskar Schell was nine years old when his father was tragically taken from him by two jetliners flown by terrorists. This was especially unfortunate for him as his father seemed to be the only person that fully understood how Oskar’s Aspergers affected him and could use that to keep Oskar in a state of growth. Thomas Schell, Oskar’s father, would assign Oskar ‘reconnaissance missions’ in which the young boy had to converse with strangers and do other tasks in order to grow his social skills and get him out of his shell. This was the point at which the class noticed that Oskar’s father seemed to be such a great father to make up for the fact that his own father was absent for his entire life. This moves onto the analysis of Thomas Schell Sr.

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.

In the book The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time, by Mark Haddon, a boy named Christopher Boone suffers from Asperger’s syndrome. Throughout the book Christopher tries to find the killer of his neighbor's dog Wellington, but it turns into a quest about finding the truth about his parents. Since Christopher has Asperger he suffers from mental and emotional challenges. Christopher suffers from emotional isolation because of his social skills, his misunderstanding of others, and he doesn't think like a normal person.

Viewing this documentary, opinions of this individual with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) did, in fact, change the opinion of who they are. ASD can start from when they were born to a mature adult. This film presented lessons on how families and the individuals have gone through a daily lifestyle. One lesson that shown in the movie is that they understand going on however it may take the time to process through their brains.

The wish of a nine-year-old Oskar Schell although not formally diagnosed as autistic, he got tested to see if he had Asperger's Syndrome, but the test was not definitive. He suffers from anxiety and describes it as ‘wearing heavy boots’ and deals with it by giving himself bruises. He gets overwhelmed when he is in hectic places with loud noises and bright

Children who experience traumatic events are more likely to be mentally affected than those who do not. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a mental health diagnosis that can be found in adult, children, men , and women. The disorder can cause low self esteem, trouble in relationships, and affect work and school. This can cause a person to be aggressive,impulsive, and hyperactive. A person who may be diagnosed will often behave angry, bored, or excited due to the amount of mood swings one may have. Another common property of the individuals who are diagnosed with ADHD will show signs of social skill conflicts involving interactions with others. Fro in environments like school. As a result from this a person would have difficulty focusing,remembering, and paying attention. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Foer is a novel that focuses on the grief of a young individual named oskar schell. Oskar is a boy who had lost his father in the nine-eleven incident. During Oscars time of grief he comes across a key he hopes will somehow bring him closer to his father. Throughout the novel Okar experiences the city out of his comfort zone by talking to people while searching for answers. In Extremely Loud Incredibly Close the main character oskar schell has attention deficit hyperactive disorder. Throughout the novel there are signs shown on how oskar has trouble dealing with his daily objectives and comprehending information.

Communication disorder is impairment in being able to receive, send, process, and understand concepts of verbal or nonverbal communication”. It can affect hearing, language, and speech. (ASHA) A speech disorder is when the articulation or speech is impaired, which includes articulation, fluency, and voice disorders. Language disorder is when comprehension or spoken or written language is not understood. There are three areas that can be affected which include form of language, content of language or function of communication. (ASHA)