Poll: How many autistic people do you know?
July 29, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
The poll is to the right, in the sidebar—I’ll leave it up for a few days and let you know the answers.
Recent Posts
Comments
10 Responses to “Poll: How many autistic people do you know?”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying about this post...-
[...] N. left a comment about how to “count” the autistic people one knows for the poll I put up today. Word Press is not letting me leave comments (on my own blog……): In my own count, I have included the many, many autistic children I have met from Charlie’s many classrooms and programs over the year, and also the many autistic individuals I have “met” online. [...]
Speak Your Mind
Tell us what you're thinking...and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
Subscribe to Blisstree
 | Click here to subscribe to Blisstree, or enter your email address and we'll send updates straight to your inbox. |
In face2face (IRL) I don’t know a lot of autistics… only several suspected ones.
Online I know tons. But “really know” like to hang out with in chats, maybe 10 or less. So not sure how to answer this.
In my own count, I have included the many, many autistic children I have met from Charlie’s many classrooms and programs over the year, and also the many autistic individuals I have “met” online.
But it is a question to think on. What does it mean to “know” someone?
Those I know in the flesh:
2 family members (adults) very well, as in the traditional sense of family. 3 children I see on a regular basis, that I’m friends with and my children are friends with. I have a connection – I feel I understand them as the people they are.
Lot’s of kids peppered around locally, say 15? They may have no clue who I am, no connection.
Online – who knows, I talk to at least one new family per week.
This should be interesting, Kristina!
I’m obviously counting relatives; then adding neighbors and their children (we live in a closeknit neighborhood), kids I know mainly through my own kids, people I know well online (personal emails exchanged, or longtime community interactions) or their children. I hesitated about my click, and might have rounded up some in the end–it’s ballpark, anyway.
I think I underestimated, actually!
My son and my friend who has a child 3 years younger than my son. I suspect my boss is too he has very little social skills and is a wiz with numbers and legal matters not just for items in our industry.
I think alot of older people (baby boomer age) had it but always knew they were different and maybe so did their parents. How parents handle things now than the way they did back then, I find may handicap them. My son’s an aspie.
Hmmm…let’s see…
1. My sister’s son.
2. Her best friend, Teresa’s son.
3. A neice on my husband’s side
of the family.
4. Six children in my son’s speech
delay class.
5. Matthew, my next door neighbor.
6. A nurse in the ER where I work
has a daughter with autism and
CNS dysfunction.
7. A nurse in cath lab has a son with
autism.
8. Our dentist’s son has autism.
9. My best friend, Heather’s son has
autism.
10. We are also awiting the diagnosis
for two friends. One who’s son flaps
hands and lines EVRYTHING up,
and another who’s child says “ticka, ticka, ticka…” ALL day.
Gee, I made this list in a couple minutes with little thought, I am sure it would be longer if I actually put time into this.
What a sad time to be a parent and have to deal with this…
Just recently one of my first cousins told me that he thinks he has Asperger’s, and his son has some “traits.” Our list grows…….
Suspects abound in my case, a few I’ve met in relation to other thing related directly to autism that I’ve met, and I know I’ve been told by many that they know someone with autism, but on the whole not that many. Then again, I really don’t “know” astounding numbers of people, and I suspect that many of these individuals I’d place under suspects are known autistics and I just don’t know the fact.
Cliff