I'm seeing a lot of posts and tweets about the new upcoming series on Fox called Touch . I haven't seen many critical reviews of what I see is a horrible representation of autism. People complain about Rainman being referenced to autism, but like this? I don't get it. Autism is not a shell. Autistic people are not paranormal changelings, indigo people, bridges to higher otherworldly knowledge, witches, magical, or any other mythical being. We are human. Nonverbal autistics are not mute angels sent here as prophets with otherworldy messages. If you don't know what damage this sort of TV program can do, please do a google search for autism and witches, or autism and paranormal, or autism and clairvoyant, or autism and psychic. Expect these results to be more common after this show airs. When I meet someone in the supermarket I do not want Touch to be what they think of when they see my nonverbal son. I thought we left that awful stereotyping back on the 90's with movies like Mercury Rising. I'm really concerned with the odd ideas this show is gonna put into people's minds about autism. I do understand that this is a fictional program that is depicting a fictional scenario, but is those without any idea as to what autism is going to fully grasp that? That's my concern.
Edited to add this link as an example of what I'm talking about: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9115795/Couple-murdered-teenage-brother-they-accused-of-witchcraft.html
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Monday, August 15, 2011
Autistic Sense Of Self: Part 2 Pronouns and Consciousness
As promised, another post in the continuation of The Autistic Sense of Self.
One thing that I have noticed with autistic children is that they often reverse pronouns and refer to themselves in third person. As a toddler, I called myself by my name often. My verbal son never used the words me, my, I, or mine until he was 4 in a half. He would say 'your turn!' when he meant 'my turn', or 'give it to you' when he meant 'give it to me' as well as call himself by his own name. I think the name came after he began straightening out the pronouns a bit. I'm not even sure that he recognized his name as him before then. (which may also explain why ASD kids don't respond to their name being called) You can read more about the new studies scientists are doing with FMRI and studying pronouns usage and sense of self in autistic brains HERE .
This also may explain some of the Theory of Mind that autistics struggle with, as well. If we don't recognize ourselves as distinguishable from our environments and other people it would be hard to understand that someone might feel different than us, or have feelings independent of our own thoughts.
I remember once when I was about maybe seven or eight I had a revelation dawn on me as I looked in the mirror. I remember it very clearly. I stood in front of the bathroom mirror and looked into my own eyes and for the first time ever I realized that the person staring back at me was me. It's really hard to explain, but I'll try. I could see that behind my eyes was a consciousness. This sort of fluid stream of personhood that was Me. This was permanent. I searched the contours of my cheeks, the depth of my brown eyes, my tongue. These belonged to me. These were mine. The person I saw looking back at me was in essence me and was me in my past, right now in my present and will be me in the future. There existed a thought process of more than just a moment in time that I never knew before. I could hear my parents and my brother on the other side of the bathroom door. I realized that these people were attached to me in permanence, as well. They existed in my past, present and future as my family. There was a difference in this moment between dreaming and being awake. I suddenly understood time as a concept, as well as how it related to me. Before then, I seemed to exist on fragments of time and consciousness. The way a dream might feel, but now I was aware and awake.
It wasn't long after this incident that I began to understand that states of mind and emotions existed independently from my own. At first, I felt that everything had feelings. I worried obsessively about things like making sure that I played with all of my toys evenly, so they would not have hurt feelings. I didn't want to cause anything to feel as left out as I did at school. So, I began with my new found knowledge of time and ToM to become rigid in all that I did. I lined up toys so I could make sure they were treated equally. I worried about how trees and the earth felt. I began the extreme rigid behaviors that would fuel me for the next 20 some yrs with anxiety. I began my insistence on sameness in my routines and well as environments. Before then, it was more like my world was totally a sensory experience with a certain disconnect from one moment to another. My memory and thoughts were more a sensory oriented and less verbal or even visual.
To be continued...
Sense Of Self Part 3
One thing that I have noticed with autistic children is that they often reverse pronouns and refer to themselves in third person. As a toddler, I called myself by my name often. My verbal son never used the words me, my, I, or mine until he was 4 in a half. He would say 'your turn!' when he meant 'my turn', or 'give it to you' when he meant 'give it to me' as well as call himself by his own name. I think the name came after he began straightening out the pronouns a bit. I'm not even sure that he recognized his name as him before then. (which may also explain why ASD kids don't respond to their name being called) You can read more about the new studies scientists are doing with FMRI and studying pronouns usage and sense of self in autistic brains HERE .
This also may explain some of the Theory of Mind that autistics struggle with, as well. If we don't recognize ourselves as distinguishable from our environments and other people it would be hard to understand that someone might feel different than us, or have feelings independent of our own thoughts.
I remember once when I was about maybe seven or eight I had a revelation dawn on me as I looked in the mirror. I remember it very clearly. I stood in front of the bathroom mirror and looked into my own eyes and for the first time ever I realized that the person staring back at me was me. It's really hard to explain, but I'll try. I could see that behind my eyes was a consciousness. This sort of fluid stream of personhood that was Me. This was permanent. I searched the contours of my cheeks, the depth of my brown eyes, my tongue. These belonged to me. These were mine. The person I saw looking back at me was in essence me and was me in my past, right now in my present and will be me in the future. There existed a thought process of more than just a moment in time that I never knew before. I could hear my parents and my brother on the other side of the bathroom door. I realized that these people were attached to me in permanence, as well. They existed in my past, present and future as my family. There was a difference in this moment between dreaming and being awake. I suddenly understood time as a concept, as well as how it related to me. Before then, I seemed to exist on fragments of time and consciousness. The way a dream might feel, but now I was aware and awake.
It wasn't long after this incident that I began to understand that states of mind and emotions existed independently from my own. At first, I felt that everything had feelings. I worried obsessively about things like making sure that I played with all of my toys evenly, so they would not have hurt feelings. I didn't want to cause anything to feel as left out as I did at school. So, I began with my new found knowledge of time and ToM to become rigid in all that I did. I lined up toys so I could make sure they were treated equally. I worried about how trees and the earth felt. I began the extreme rigid behaviors that would fuel me for the next 20 some yrs with anxiety. I began my insistence on sameness in my routines and well as environments. Before then, it was more like my world was totally a sensory experience with a certain disconnect from one moment to another. My memory and thoughts were more a sensory oriented and less verbal or even visual.
To be continued...
Sense Of Self Part 3
Monday, August 8, 2011
Autistic Sense Of Self
A few years ago I was watching an informative piece on TV about the development of autism. One part really stuck with me that made a revelation in my mind that has been rattling wondering what it could fully mean. I felt I was on the verge of a vast and complicated canyon full of information that would keep my ever thinking brain wrapped up for some time.
They spoke of a child being able to know they were a separate being from their surroundings and know that their reflection in the mirror was indeed them. This milestone should be in place by 9-12 months in most typically developing children. The way this was tested was that they put a dot of lipstick on the baby's forehead and let them look at themselves in the mirror. If the baby knew that the reflection was of themselves they would try to wipe their forehead to get the dot off, or at the least investigate the mysterious thing on their face that doesn't belong. If they were still self unaware they'd try to wipe the mirror, signaling to the adults they were not aware of the dot being on their own head.
So, this was interesting, as children with autism don't seem to have this ability, at least not until much later. I then thought that of the fact that most children on the spectrum (and some adults) don't refer to themselves in first person. This is now being backed up by science using an FMRI to analyze the parts of the brain autistic individuals use to process language referring to self.
The subject of Sense of Self came up in a forum that I frequented and I have since brought it up in several others, as it's one of infinite interest to me. It's always the females on the autism spectrum who delve in to discuss the subject of owning one's self and what this might mean to us, vs typical people. The males almost never participate, even as the forum pages grow sometimes into the 20's as us ladies philosophizes. Sometimes, they might poke their head in, announce they don't know what in the world we're talking about, and make a hasty exit. (which is another facet I'd like to explore- do males on the spectrum have less sense of self than females? If so why?) Of course, the case may be that males in general are less inclined to engage in debate about what constitutes self. My husband certainly did not have any desire to discuss it at all with me.
I'd like to break this subject down into several posts, as I have a lot I'd like to say on it. This way I am not posting a novel of a post for everyone to read, which you won't due to short attention spans or time limitations. So, if you're interested, please stay tuned for part two of Autistic Sense Of Self- Pronouns and Consciousness.
So, this was interesting, as children with autism don't seem to have this ability, at least not until much later. I then thought that of the fact that most children on the spectrum (and some adults) don't refer to themselves in first person. This is now being backed up by science using an FMRI to analyze the parts of the brain autistic individuals use to process language referring to self.
The subject of Sense of Self came up in a forum that I frequented and I have since brought it up in several others, as it's one of infinite interest to me. It's always the females on the autism spectrum who delve in to discuss the subject of owning one's self and what this might mean to us, vs typical people. The males almost never participate, even as the forum pages grow sometimes into the 20's as us ladies philosophizes. Sometimes, they might poke their head in, announce they don't know what in the world we're talking about, and make a hasty exit. (which is another facet I'd like to explore- do males on the spectrum have less sense of self than females? If so why?) Of course, the case may be that males in general are less inclined to engage in debate about what constitutes self. My husband certainly did not have any desire to discuss it at all with me.
I'd like to break this subject down into several posts, as I have a lot I'd like to say on it. This way I am not posting a novel of a post for everyone to read, which you won't due to short attention spans or time limitations. So, if you're interested, please stay tuned for part two of Autistic Sense Of Self- Pronouns and Consciousness.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)