Estelle Ryan's Blog - Posts Tagged "aspergers"
What is AUTISM?
I will not attempt to answer that question in one post. The topic is vast and more research, giving us more info every day. Since Tuesday, 18 June is Autistic Pride Day, I thought it might be a good idea to post a little something about ASD – or better known as Autism Spectrum Disorder
In my books, Genevieve (the main character) has high functioning autism. I’ve received quite a few emails from people with ASD or people working with other who have special needs. These emails are invaluable to me, especially those that say they could relate to Genevieve, or those who said she has a special place in their hearts. It makes me take a huge breath of relief – I’m getting it right. I remember seeing a poster that said, “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism”.
ASD is extremely difficult to define and serves as an umbrella term for a group of complex disorders of brain development. To name a few: autistic disorder, pervasive development disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) (yes! that really is the loooong name!), Rett syndrome, Asperger syndrome and childhood disintegrative disorder. Most of these are characterized in different levels of difficulty in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behavior.
That’s a mouth-full, right? Well, my journey into ASD has taught me much about neurotypical and non-neurotypical behaviours, autistic meltdowns and shutdowns. Genevieve is known to go into a shutdown when things become too much for her, usually mentally writing some Mozart to control her behaviour better. Genevieve is also termed as high functioning because she is totally independent and verbal. Some people on the spectrum are nonverbal and completely dependent on others for daily care. In extreme laymen terms, those would be the people who live in their heads, never making contact with others.
Here are some symptoms of ASD:
Social communication difficulties
* Difficulties with verbal and non-verbal language
* Taking things very literally (this has landed Genevieve in a few funny situations)
* Difficulty reading facial expressions or tone of voice (Genevieve’s main motivation for studying nonverbal communication – so she can understand others)
* Difficulty or inability to understand jokes or sarcasm
* Unable to take turns in a conversation
* Prefers to talk about their own interests
Social interaction difficulties
* Unable to recognise emotions or feelings (often because of their inability to read body language)
* Difficulty expressing their own emotions
* Appear insensitive
* Prefer spending time on their own
* Seem to behave inappropriately (also mainly because they take things so literally, they don’t read social cues very well.)
As you can see in the image above, OCD (obsessive compulsive behavior) can also often be observed in people with ASD. As well as ADHD and quite a few other difficulties. Daily these people are faced with challenges to function ‘normally’ in a society that very seldom embraces anything different. Today I want to salute those brave souls. And even more… I want to solute the incredible saints who stand behind these people: the parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, spouses, educators and therapists who empower these wonderfully unique people to integrate and live their lives to the fullest.
In my books, Genevieve (the main character) has high functioning autism. I’ve received quite a few emails from people with ASD or people working with other who have special needs. These emails are invaluable to me, especially those that say they could relate to Genevieve, or those who said she has a special place in their hearts. It makes me take a huge breath of relief – I’m getting it right. I remember seeing a poster that said, “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism”.
ASD is extremely difficult to define and serves as an umbrella term for a group of complex disorders of brain development. To name a few: autistic disorder, pervasive development disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) (yes! that really is the loooong name!), Rett syndrome, Asperger syndrome and childhood disintegrative disorder. Most of these are characterized in different levels of difficulty in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behavior.
That’s a mouth-full, right? Well, my journey into ASD has taught me much about neurotypical and non-neurotypical behaviours, autistic meltdowns and shutdowns. Genevieve is known to go into a shutdown when things become too much for her, usually mentally writing some Mozart to control her behaviour better. Genevieve is also termed as high functioning because she is totally independent and verbal. Some people on the spectrum are nonverbal and completely dependent on others for daily care. In extreme laymen terms, those would be the people who live in their heads, never making contact with others.
Here are some symptoms of ASD:
Social communication difficulties
* Difficulties with verbal and non-verbal language
* Taking things very literally (this has landed Genevieve in a few funny situations)
* Difficulty reading facial expressions or tone of voice (Genevieve’s main motivation for studying nonverbal communication – so she can understand others)
* Difficulty or inability to understand jokes or sarcasm
* Unable to take turns in a conversation
* Prefers to talk about their own interests
Social interaction difficulties
* Unable to recognise emotions or feelings (often because of their inability to read body language)
* Difficulty expressing their own emotions
* Appear insensitive
* Prefer spending time on their own
* Seem to behave inappropriately (also mainly because they take things so literally, they don’t read social cues very well.)
As you can see in the image above, OCD (obsessive compulsive behavior) can also often be observed in people with ASD. As well as ADHD and quite a few other difficulties. Daily these people are faced with challenges to function ‘normally’ in a society that very seldom embraces anything different. Today I want to salute those brave souls. And even more… I want to solute the incredible saints who stand behind these people: the parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, spouses, educators and therapists who empower these wonderfully unique people to integrate and live their lives to the fullest.
