Temple Grandin- Converstations from Penn State

Temple Grandin- Conversations from Penn State: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt_G7Zw5I8c

Temple Grandin

Dr. Temple Grandin did not talk until she was nearly four years old. Instead of communicating her frustration she would have tantrums. She was diagnosed as autistic in 1950. Her parents were advised to institionalized. Lucky for her, Temples mother did not let this happen adn she did her best to bring up her duaghter as best as she can.Temple describes her journey through autism as "groping her way from the far side of darkness". This is a quote from her book called "Emeergence: Labeled Autistic. This book shocked the world. Temple opened parents eyes that autism is not the end of the world.

Dr. Temple Grandin is a designer of livestock handling facilities and a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. The facilities she has designed can be found in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and many more countries around the world.

She is an expert in amimal behaviour. She really understands how animals think and their moods.

Dr. Temple Grandin

"Songs of the Gorilla Nation-MyJourney Through Autism"

“Songs of the Gorilla Nation” is a moving and touching story about Dawn Prince-Hughes and her journey through autism. Prince-Hughes was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, when she was thirty-six years old. Throughout her life she struggled with being different. She felt different from other people and she had difficulty communicating with people. Although she was aware of her uniqueness, she never understood why she felt this way. She spent a great deal of her life alone and disconnected from the world. It took her even longer to find out the reason why. She wrote this book about her own autism, which is both like and unlike other people’s autism.

Prince-Hughes had a difficult time growing up. Her condition stopped her from bonding with her family and creating friendships. She found it difficult to relate to other people. She remained alone and thought alone. “I remained both strange and invisible to all those around me” (Prince- Hughes, D. 2004). She felt alienated from the world. It was not until she began to study the gorillas, she began to feel more comfortable in her own skin. She began to study the way they interacted with each other and with humans. She watched how they played, communicated and ate. She watched how they expressed their emotions and how they cared for one another. Prince-Hughes discusses different parts of her social life which she struggled with in her book. From relationships with family and friends, sensory sensitivities and her love of routine, Prince-Hughes shares with the reader the difficulties she faced living with a condition she did not know she had.

 

Louis Theroux: Extreme Love

In April 2012, BBC Two aired a documentary called “Extreme Love”. This was Louis Theroux latest adventure. In episode one of this two episode series, Theroux, an English broadcaster, travels to America to learn about autism and the affects it has on children with the condition and their families. Theroux travels to DLC Warren in New Jersey. DLC Warren is one of the most innovative schools of its kind for young people who have autism. Theroux takes the viewers on a journey through “the pleasures and pain” of the relationships shared between the parents and their children. This documentary gives the viewer a real insight into what it is like living with someone with autism. It does not cover up the hardships faced by parents. Theroux shows life for these families as it is. It is truthful, moving and informative.

One young man Theroux met was Nicky. Nicky is 19years old and he has made great progress in DLC Warren and he is moving on to a new mainstream school to continue his studies. His move causes him great anxiety. He is anxious about leaving his old friends and about the classes and the work being harder. Nicky tells Theroux that he has a “fear of getting homework”. Theroux visits Nicky’s home to meet his family and learn more about Nicky. Nicky was eighteen months old when his mother noticed there was something different about Nicky. Theroux asks Nicky’s mother if she could, would she take away Nicky’s autism and she replies no. She says “He’s too special”. Nicky shows Theroux some of his work. He has written several different dictionaries in different languages. He has also written a novel “Dragonula” that he reads for Theroux and his camera crew. Nicky and Theroux strike up a friendship. Nicky proves to be a chatty, sociable and self-assured young man. He does suffer from anxiety. Although he is anxious about change he is willing to accept it.

Theroux also meets a lady called Josephine and her some Brian. Brian does not live at home. Brian was prone to outbursts and often assaulted his mother. She could not handle it anymore so he lives in a group home. It is of course difficult for his mother to be away from him but she had no choice. Josephine clearly loves her son but she was not able to handle his behaviour on her own. She was afraid of him. She says that living with her son was “unbearable”. He would lash out on his mother for little or nothing. It was difficult bringing him up. She is sad however that her son does not live with her anymore. Since he moved to the group home his behaviour has improved. He was put on medication which helped calm him down. He stays there during the week and comes to visit his mother on the weekend. From watching Brian on the show, he seems very sociable and loving. Theroux was struck by his warmth and how friendly Brian is.

Joey has being diagnosed as severely autistic. This is because of his lack of communication. He has a tendency to have aggressive tantrums. He has being known to lash out in school and home. There is a scene in the documentary where Joey starts to have a tantrum. His mother has to wrestle him to the floor to try and calm him down. His mother needed help from her husband to hold Joey down. They had to lie Joey down on the ground and lie on top of him to try and keep Joey under control. Theroux asks if they want the camera’s to step out for a moment and Joey’s mother says no. She says to Theroux, “Unless I let you film it, nobody is going to ever know that this is true autism…A lot of parents don’t want you to see that”.  Theroux asks Joey’s mother is she would take away Joeys autism is she could. She replies yes she would. Joey is getting bigger and stronger. There are times his parents worry about his strength. It is getting harder and harder for them to control him.  No matter what, they still love their child. Just some days are harder than others.

 Some of the scenes throughout the documentary are very difficult to watch. Theroux shows the audience the extremes of autism. He shows the good times and bad times. Parents talk about how they feel and express their concern for their children and their future. This documentary shows how huge the autism spectrum is. There is no specific characteristic that one child has and another does not. This documentary shows the extremes of autism. It is honest and at times brutal. Each of the young people Theroux met while making this are all very different from one another. Each of them has their own difficulties and faces their own struggles. They are all unique. Their families support them and love them no matter what. In the end that is what counts and that is what all children deserve.

“The pleasures and the strains of one of the most extraordinary kinds of relationships” (Extreme Love-Autism, 2012)

Creature Discomforts

There are other ways to raise awareness about ASD. An excellent example is through animation. Aardman Animation paired up with Leonard Cheshire Disability to create a series of short animation to raise awareness about people with disabilities. Leonard Cheshire Disability is an organisation who helps people who have physical impairments and learning disabilities. They aspire to help everyone understand disability and combat discrimination against it. The organization supports thousands of people in the UK and works with disabled people in over fifty countries. (Leonard Cheshire Disability 2011) Aardman Animations are well known for their stop-motion animation. They have created a number of different animated productions over the years, such as “Chicken Run” (2000), “Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of The Were-Rabbit” (2005). (Aardman, 2012) They also released a book called “Cracking Animation” in the year 2010, to help give young animators starting off a glimpse of what it is like to make a stop motion animation from scratch. “Creature Discomforts” is a series of short and sweet animations to help raise awareness about disability. It is a fun and unique approach to spread the word about disability and help people understand that these are people too.

“Abled bodied people need to learn…to think differently about what they say to [disabled people]” (Creature Discomforts 2012) 

These are real stories being told by real people. Aardman simply took these stories and created characters based on the sound of the voices they heard. The animations are humorous and relatable. What made this animation so effective was that these were real people telling their story.

Sarah Cuningham

 

"Autism by Hand" by Lorca Damon

Lorca Damon put pen to paper one day to share her story. Damon’s daughter Carrie was diagnosed with severe autism when she was thirteen months old. When Carrie was a baby she was having difficulty reaching her milestones. She did not speak or walk. She was not able to sit up or drink from a cup by herself. She needed help. Her paediatrician did voice his concern when this was brought to his attention. Damon was not too concerned at first. Carrie seemed like a happy little baby. That was all that mattered. Damon never thought there was anything seriously wrong with her child until a second doctor voiced his concern. The diagnosis was described as “Full Blown Autism”, (Damon, 2011). After hearing the news Damon tried her best to provide for Carrie in whatever way she could. She began researching the condition, learning as much as she could about the condition and desperately seeking advice about raising her child. To Damon, it seemed that most books seemed to tell her the facts and figures about autism. She did not find it helpful or reassuring. It made her see a future of hardship for her child rather than a bright future. Damon wanted to learn about the obstacles she and her daughter would face as Carrie was growing up. She wanted to know how she could teach Carrie to use the toilet, teach her to talk, help her through her first day of school. She wanted to know all about how to help Carrie deal with growing up in a world that she may not understand. 

“I needed to know how to potty train my daughter. I needed to know how to teach her to talk or what to do when the day finally came that she had to go to school or had a crush on a boy or got her period.” (Damon 2011)

Damon needed to help prepare Carrie for the future and growing up. She needed to help her daughter through her life as best as she could. So she wrote “Autism by Hand”. Damon states in the introduction that this is “not a human-interest story or a self-help book or an instruction manual”. She is not telling people how they should raise their autistic child. This is simply her experience and her own personal account of what she did to help Carrie. Damon writes this book to help other parents because when she needed a book like this, it was not there.

 “This book wasn’t there when I needed it”. (Damon, 2011) 

Damon takes the reader through a step by step guide of the methods she used when it came to raising her daughter to be the best person she could be. It is important throughout Damon’s book not to take anything to heart. Damon is not writing to spare anyone’s feelings. She is telling it as it is. She is not trying to hurt anyone on purpose. Damon is giving an open, honest and personal account of her experience raising a child with autism. Her book does not have any medical information or any scientific facts. This is from her heart. She is not afraid to voice her opinion. She warns the reader that they will hate her while reading this. She can brutally honest and at times it can be hurtful. Damon is just telling her story the way it is. The only way a story should be told.

Damon takes the reader through several steps and techniques she used while helping Carrie grow up. First there is what Damon refers to as the “Toolbox”. Damon talks about a series of different objects she kept nearby while she was working with Carrie. These objects included a pair of big sunglasses, several pairs of white gloves, a yoga ball, plastic cups and wooden puzzles, play doh, and bubble liquid, filmy scarves and stuffed animal toys. There is a reason for each of these objects. Each object is used to teach Carrie about counting numbers, telling the time, learning to speak and many more.

The pair of big sunglasses was very important. Damon would wear these to attract Carries attention when Damon needed to speak to her. The sunglasses will show the child’s reflection which they find intriguing. More importantly, the glasses cover up a proportion of the face which provides an overwhelming amount of information. The human eyes can tell so much about a person. They reflect what mood a person is in, they blink and flutter, eyebrows come in all different shapes and sizes and they too move while people talk and express themselves. To a young child with autism, this is a lot of information to take in. It is distracting and they can find it difficult to look directly at someone’s eyes. Damon always would try to have her sunglasses at hand. If she did not she would talk to Carrie with her eyes closed. This helped Carrie concentrate on what her mother was saying rather than being over whelmed by her eyes. 

The plastic cups, wooden puzzles and stacking blocks have countless possibilities. Damon would get rainbow plastic cups for her daughter to play with. She would get a variety of colours.  She would let Carrie stack them up and kick them down, first with her right foot then her left foot. This would help Carrie distinguish between left and right. They were great for stacking together and counting too. The same goes for the wooden stacking blocks and puzzles. They are durable and will last a long time. The Yoga Ball and the stompers were to help Carrie with her balance. A lot of children with autism hate feeling off balance. These objects give that feeling. It may be hard for the child at first but by getting them up higher and teaching them to walk on the stompers or to sit and bounce on the yoga ball will help them stay upright and will also help them with their confidence. Play doh and bubble liquids are simply just used for fun and enjoyment. Bubbles can be very relaxing and soothing and it is great fun to pop them. Play doh can be used to mould shapes and create little figures and objects. These objects made learning fun for Carrie.

Damon also talks about using filmy scarves. Filmy scarves that are made of light weight material and see through. This material is slow moving. When thrown it is easily caught which could become a game of catch. Damon also talks about teaching children to sound “TH” by saying it through the scarf. She also discusses teaching a child how to blow bubbles in the pool or blowing their nose using the scarf as well. These are simple techniques for everyday life that are important. The stuffed animal is a comforter but it can also be used to teach an autistic child about communication. It is fair to say that people with autism struggle when it comes to communicating with others. Animals are far less intimidating than people. By using the child’s favourite stuffed toy animal it can teach the child about communication. It can be used to act out everyday scenes such as talking to someone in a queue. It can teach the child about playing games with others and taking turns. 

The most important object Damon keeps at hand is the white gloves. In her tool box or wrapped around her belt, Damon would have several pairs of white gloves. They were made of white material and they were easy to write on. Damon would use these gloves to teach Carrie visually. Carrie learned about time using these gloves. They were used as a calendar, a clock, a countdown timer and many more. Damon would use the gloves to show her how many days were left until her birthday.  She would use the gloves to show Carrie how many words she would need to speak if she wanted something. If Carrie started to scream, Damon would simply use her gloves and her fingers as a countdown to how much time Carrie had left before she would have to stop screaming. Damon would write the days of the week on each finger. This would help Carrie get a sense of time. It helped Carrie when it came for making plans during the week. For example, if Carrie was going swimming on Thursday, Damon would write Monday to Thursday on her fingers and slowly show Carrie the process. Today is Monday (thumb), tomorrow is Tuesday (middle finger), the next day is Wednesday (ring finger) then it is Thursday and that is when she will go swimming. This gives Carrie something visual to focus on. It makes it easier to understand and it prepares her for the day.

Although these objects in the toolbox may seem simple, they can be very important when teaching a child with autism about communication, time and numeracy. It is important to realize that although some tasks may spear to be easy to everyone else, for a young child with autism they could be a lot harder. These objects are interesting. They will keep a child entertained and will help them learn about everyday life as best as they can.