Colors and Uniqueness
November 9, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Not everyone agrees about the notion of the “autism spectrum, in which “autism” is a term that refers to persons with diagnoses ranging from Asperger Syndrome to what some call “severe” autism.” Perhaps it is not a perfect metaphor, but I think it has its uses in understanding autism—in thinking about how, while Charlie’s speech is much less than that of a child his age with Asperger, they nonetheless share a number of traits, such as patterns of thinking, sensory processing difficulties, and a tendency towards obsessive thinking. “The Colors of Autism” is the name of a gallery talk to be given by Dr. Dan Ingram, PsyD, NCSP, psychologist and clinical instructor, at the Art Institute of York in Pennsylvania, on November 14 (next Wednesday). The notion of autism as having “many colors” seems to me to refer to the notion of the autism spectrum. The talk is being given in conjunction with Uniqueness: celebrating the talent of individuals living with autism spectrum, an exhibition that features student and professional artwork. As the Art Institute, Hanover resident 20-year-old David Bittinger, created the art—a crayon pastel image—that was chosen for the exhibition’s poster. You can see a painting by David here in an October 23rd article from the York Daily Record entitled Art for their sake.
The organizers of the exhibition chose autism as the subject because, it seems, autism has been in the community’s consciousness: As part of a program called One Book, One Community, many people read Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Another featured speaker at the exhibition is Scott Robertson, a graduate student at Penn State; he has Asperger Syndrome and is vice president and Pennsylvania regional director of The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network.
I’ve learned from these books and from hearing Scott Robertson speak at a conference last Spring in Philadelphia: While Charlie’s experience of autism in Haddon’s novel and as Robertson described it, there are plenty of overlaps, of similar colors with different hues.
My daughter is all over on the spectrum. This is one reason it was so hard to get her good help in school. I read Curious Dog book and loved it.
Some parents and professionals are trying to deal with autistic children who engage in serious, even deadly, self injurious behavior, including head banging induced brain injury, self biting, self starvation etc. A 50 year old autistic woman with no communication skills in a Long Island residential care facility was physically assaulted by staff until the assaults were caught on videotape.
And you have an issue with the use of ordinary language like “severe”, and “low functioning”? You have “interesting” priorities.
My son has deadly self injurious behavior and i dont use ’severe and low functioning’ since i have been reading blogs written by autistic people. As they have said they dont like these terms. And i respect their feelings, as maybe if my son could talk he would say the same.
Harold,
Labels are only as useful as they are helpful. The individual specifics of behavior, medical needs, specific skill strengths and deficits, learning style and supports seem, IMO, to be more useful esp. considering such a coarse cut dichotomy of “high” vs. “low”. As an example that I have given on this blog–in one year my daughter was evaluated as high AND low AND “moderate”. Which is it? None of those labels were particularly specific or helpful in representing her or anticipating her needs.
Indiana Resource Center for Autism
“…Many adults who were considered severely disabled as students, are now able to secure jobs, live in a variety of home environments, and are able to become members of their community when appropriate supports are in place and when taught necessary skills. Labeling a person as low functioning may in effect serve to limit the person’s potential by limiting our vision for that person.
Clearly, students with autism who have severe cognitive limitations can be challenging to educators. However, as professionals and family members review the literature on autism, beware of the dichotomy between low- and high- functioning. These two groups often are referred to as if they are two discrete and separate categories of individuals. Realize that there are individuals with autism who may be gifted in certain areas but who are extremely challenged in others. Conversely, students with the label of severe disabilities can possess exceptional talents. In other words, students labeled as high-functioning may be severely disabled by their autism. And those who are labeled as low- functioning may be less affected by the characteristics associated with autism…”
Thank you for mentioning “some people,” Harold, who are dealing with SIB’s etc., as we are ourselves in that number. ABA has taught my son how to better deal with these behaviors.
I always return to Curious Incident……… I am thinking that it might be well to saythat Charlie is “middle functioning.” (Though “mfa” would be an acronym for something else.)
I must admit I’m always confused by people who object to worrying about how terms and “ordinary language” are used, suggesting it is of lesser importance. Words define how we think, and with neurological conditions, we must realign how we think in order to understand the world as Autistic people perceive it. Sure, it’s not addressing specific issues, but if we only worry about the specific issues and never try to look at the big picture, how can we hope to rise above a reactionary understanding of Autism to achieve proactive and progressive thought about those specific issues?