Posted on 12/20/2012 8:29:28 AM PST by Albion Wilde
...The vast majority of autistic people are not violent.... But the suggestion that science has demonstrated there is no link at all between autism and aggressive violence is questionable.
Google “autism” and “aggression” and you will suddenly be treated to a counter world the formal autism community claims does not exist: desperate mothers seeking help or respite from the violent behavior of large, aggressive, beloved autistic boys (and a few girls)...
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
I have a family member involved with a work program that tries to provide a rich life experience for people with mental disabilities.
I’m certainly no expert on these matters, but I did want to defend certain people who are afflicted with disorders that cause those who don’t know them to react in a negative manner simply because they haven’t been around people like that before.
Yes, some of these people do act out from time to time. For the most part, it’s like children on the playground. Some of them act inappropriately and get in trouble for it.
If as some people fear, these people were all dangerous, programs like this one would not work. In fact they are not all dangerous. Even so, they also transition through different conditions. Sometimes they cross over into a situation where they can’t function with the group as they used to, and measures have to be taken to make sure they are in a program that is right for them.
This was my emphasis. And it’s important that people understand this. The difference is these folks being placed in a room and wasting away, or living in a group home with their peers, and getting up and going to work every day like others do. They also get to socialize, go to movies, bowling, out to eat, and things on a simpler scale, that still make their lives as fulfilling as ours are.
Even if a job is quite simple, they get a sense of accomplishment out of doing it successfully.
Programs like this are very important to their clientele, and it’s vitally important that members of the community understand what they dynamics truly are.
Amen.
Thank you Mrs. Dono.
My mother tried to stomp me with her walker this summer because she didn't like the way we were moving her into her assisted living apartment.
She may not be fast, bit she’s deadly if you’re within striking distance. LOL
I hear ya, and it’s not a laughing matter situation.
Sorry. I know it was tough.
I am amazed at how rigid she’s gotten in her old age (99). She doesn’t hear well, or see well, anymore; but she’s a retired school teacher so she is firm in her opinions — even when she’s wrong.
That’s a very interesting theory....I wonder how much gender plays a role...
Made it thru the first article!
I understand wanting a ‘cure,’ but the genetic engineering to achieve its elimination gives pause. What if someone down the line decides that red hair or green eyes should be ‘cured?’ Or any genetic trait? Short people got no business. All rather frightening. I think we can only fool around with God so much.
I’d imagine it’s pretty tough accepting that you’re not sharp enough to fend for yourself any longer. It’s a tough period of life to go through. It isn’t easy for you either.
Here’s to hoping things go as smoothly as possible for your family.
Take care.
read
I found your story very interesting. Communication, to me, is whatever non-injurious method causes understanding between two beings. Having traveled in foreign lands, I used hand signals, drawings, even singing to try to get my messages across. It was also an unique pleasure to work for an animal research concern for awhile, during which I read a great deal about interspecies and intraspecies communications. Certainly, every cat, dog and horse owner uses both words and touch, as well as certain forms of eye contact, to communicate with their pet, and the sensitive human can understand a wide range of animal body language.
You might enjoy the books of Dr. Temple Grandin, who has been mentioned in the article. She is an autistic woman with very odd speech and behavior who, nevertheless, used her unique non-verbal mental processes ("Thinking in pictures") to understand animals. She has written extensively about animal communications because she sees the parallels between her own autistic inability to understand the finer points of human social cues and the perceptions of animals who interact with humans.
That said, there is a difference between physically communicating and shooting Mom in the face.
I agree -- the farther we get away from being able to manage within Nature as she is, and not trying to force her to be what we want her to be -- the closer we are to societal collapse. The idea of medicating violently mentally ill people and turning them loose in the community with full adult "rights" to take their meds -- or not take them -- is a risky game.
As for the scientists who want to genetically re-engineer other humans, I say, "You first."
This also raises the question of Synesthesia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia
It basically means “overlapping senses”, and some people with autism are known to have one (or more?) of the 60 known kinds.
For example, there was one autistic child who experienced “Time as an elephant”, visualizing a large amount of time in the future as a large physical object, and as time passed, the object would get smaller until time ran out, then it would disappear.
Yet his understanding of time this way was important to another autistic child, who had a “time delay” of emotional response of about a day. That is, if someone slapped him, he would be impassive, then about a day later he would start to cry and wail as if he had just been slapped.
However, science is just barely scratching the surface of understanding Synesthesia, and it is pretty extraordinary. For example, there are some people who can “see” music as different colors. Only a few people with extraordinary hearing might listed to an orchestra and tell that a violin is out of tune, but someone with that form of Synesthesia can tell which violin, because its music has a different color than the other violins.
Fascinating! Such myriad human talents! It just reminds all of us to respect people as we find them and accentuate the positive!
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