Life with Aspergers

My latest post on Special-ism is now available. Helping Your Special Needs Child to See Past their Own Point of View http://special-ism.com/helping-your-special-needs-child-to-see-past-their-own-point-of-view/ It covers the need to understand the concept of individuality and the way this and other factors can lead us to have different values and expectations. I look at the problems of "invisible" values and the difficulty in understanding how different people have different sensitivities. Hop on over to have a read .

Sometimes it seems as if humanity is doomed to argue with itself over specifics forever, whether they be Star Wars vs Star Trek, Windows vs Mac or Islam vs Christianity. The truth is that although we're all thinking about similar concepts; science fiction, computers and religion, there is no one "correct" answer - just our own personal opinion. Yet we spend so much energy fighting the battle that we have little left to spend furthering our own causes.  That's how I feel about the whole "autism speaks" debate. Everyone will believe what they want to believe and it's not up to us to change the opinions of those who already believe. Instead, we need to move forward with our beliefs and our agenda and male sure that ours is compelling enough to catch the attention of the undecided. Why we feel that message of Autism Speaks is not the best one So, why all the antagonism towards "Autism Speaks", an agency which is raising money for "Auti...

I had a fascinating conversation with a work colleague yesterday about why we keep breaking records in the Olympics. I said that surely we've reached the pinnacle of our human abilities and that any improvements have more to do with better timing mechanisms, technology and drugs. He disagreed and cited the case of Australian, Jessica Fox whose parents were both medalists at earlier Olympics.  Surely that combination of genes gave her a distinct advantage over her competitors. He also talked about a hurdlist who due to some difference was able to bend her foot slightly differently to cut off a few centimetres with each jump. Sadly I can't remember who it was.  I joked with my colleague and suggested that maybe there's a gene for all of this and jokingly suggested that his parents might have worked in the same field as him, in this case finance.  Amusingly, he said that they had. So how does this all tie back to Asperger's Syndrome? We all carry...

Long time readers of this blog will know that it's a myth that people with Asperger's syndrome can't empathize and that if a situation is explained to them, they can certainly feel emotion and put themselves "into the shoes of another". The question is, can a person with Asperger's learn to empathize automatically and without the need for explanation. Empathy is a tricky thing to define but one thing is for sure; it isn't about feeling sorry for someone. It's about either feeling as they do, understanding how they feel or having a reciprocal feeling. Some of the biggest challenges for people with Asperger's syndrome lie around the interpretation of gestures, tone and expression in both directions, sending and receiving. Gestures, tone and expression are the primary means of communicating the human emotional state with talking and writing being used far less.  In fact, quite often spoken expression confusingly communicates the exact opposite of...

Today I'm blogging over at Special-ism and the subject is Disciplining Children with Special Needs , click over to have a read. Discipline and Kids with Special Needs http://special-ism.com/discipline-and-kids-with-asds/

This post is a response to;  Want to commit suicide because of my son’s autism by Tammy http://www.autismlearningfelt.com/2012/07/want-to-commit-suicide-because-of-my-sons-autism.html Tammy, who blogs at Autism Learning Felt ( http://www.autismlearningfelt.com/ ) was looking through the search words used to get to her blog when she saw “ Want to commit suicide because of my son’s autism ”.  Her post is a heartfelt response to the unknown person who searched for the phrase. Please read Tammy's post . A short while ago, there was a wave of support for a similar search using the term " I wish I didn't have Aspergers " and it was great to see the community come together to provide support and encouragement for the person in this position but I'm keen to see whether or not we're willing to open our arms to the carers. I hope so. The Issues between Advocates with Autism and Carers Unfortunately, there is one big problem which stands between the advo...

We are a society obsessed with betterment through numbers and it seems that we are constantly trying to find ways to have simple numbers prove our worth in society. Films, for example, are rated by the number of stars a reviewer gives them - or by their gross takings at the box office but neither of these is a personal rating applicable to you, the viewer. We've all had times where we've disagreed with critics and we all know that box office success doesn't always mean that a film is great. The same applies to other parts of our lives. People who engage us in conversation want to know what type of car we drive, where we live and what we do for a living. They seem like harmless enough questions but quite often these people are fishing for the clues which will help them either outrank you in some way - or become insanely jealous. Of course, our lives are far too complex to be defined by such simple comparisons but that doesn't stop people from trying - particularly...