Sunday, April 29, 2007

Thinking In Pictures

Chapter 1: Autism and Visual Thought
Dr. Temple Grandin




I THINK IN PICTURES. Words are like a second language to me. I translate both spoken and written words into full-color movies, complete with sound, which run like a VCR tape in my head. When somebody speaks to me, his words are instantly translated into pictures. Language-based thinkers often find this phenomenon difficult to understand, but in my job as an equipment designer for the livestock industry, visual thinking is a tremendous advantage.

Visual thinking has enabled me to build entire systems in my imagination. During my career I have designed all kinds of equipment, ranging from corrals for handling cattle on ranches to systems for handling cattle and hogs during veterinary procedures and slaughter. I have worked for many major livestock companies. In fact, one third of the cattle and hogs in the United States are handled in equipment I have designed. Some of the people I've worked for don't even know that their systems were designed by someone with autism. I value my ability to think visually, and I would never want to lose it.


One of the most profound mysteries of autism has been the remarkable ability of most autistic people to excel at visual spatial skills while performing so poorly at verbal skills. When I was a child and a teenager, I thought everybody thought in pictures. I had no idea that my thought processes were different. In fact, I did not realize the full extent of the differences until very recently. At meetings and at work I started asking other people detailed questions about how they accessed information from their memories. From their answers I learned that my visualization skills far exceeded those of most other people.


I credit my visualization abilities with helping me understand the animals I work with. Early in my career I used a camera to help give me the animals' perspective as they walked through a chute for their veterinary treatment. I would kneel down and take pictures through the chute from the cow's eye level. Using the photos, I was able to figure out which things scared the cattle, such as shadows and bright spots of sunlight. Back then I used black-and-white film, because twenty years ago scientists believed that cattle lacked color vision. Today, research has shown that cattle can see colors, but the photos provided the unique advantage of seeing the world through a cow's viewpoint. They helped me figure out why the animals refused to go in one chute but willingly walked through another.


Every design problem I've ever solved started with my ability to visualize and see the world in pictures. I started designing things as a child, when I was always experimenting with new kinds of kites and model airplanes. In elementary school I made a helicopter out of a broken balsa-wood airplane. When I wound up the propeller, the helicopter flew straight up about a hundred feet. I also made bird-shaped paper kites, which I flew behind my bike. The kites were cut out from a single sheet of heavy drawing paper and flown with thread. I experimented with different ways of bending the wings to increase flying performance. Bending the tips of the wings up made the kite fly higher. Thirty years later, this same design started appearing on commercial aircraft.


Now, in my work, before I attempt any construction, I test-run the equipment in my imagination. I visualize my designs being used in every possible situation, with different sizes and breeds of cattle and in different weather conditions. Doing this enables me to correct mistakes prior to construction. Today, everyone is excited about the new virtual reality computer systems in which the user wears special goggles and is fully immersed in video game action. To me, these systems are like crude cartoons. My imagination works like the computer graphics programs that created the lifelike dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. When I do an equipment simulation in my imagination or work on an engineering problem, it is like seeing it on a videotape in my mind. I can view it from any angle, placing myself above or below the equipment and rotating it at the same time. I don't need a fancy graphics program that can produce three-dimensional design simulations. I can do it better and faster in my head.


I create new images all the time by taking many little parts of images I have in the video library in my imagination and piecing them together. I have video memories of every item I've ever worked with -- steel gates, fences, latches, concrete walls, and so forth. To create new designs, I retrieve bits and pieces from my memory and combine them into a new whole. My design ability keeps improving as I add more visual images to my library. I add video-like images from either actual experiences or translations of written information into pictures. I can visualize the operation of such things as squeeze chutes, truck loading ramps, and all different types of livestock equipment. The more I actually work with cattle and operate equipment, the stronger my visual memories become.


I first used my video library in one of my early livestock design projects, creating a dip vat and cattle-handling facility for John Wayne's Red River feed yard in Arizona. A dip vat is a long, narrow, seven-foot-deep swimming pool through which cattle move in single file. It is filled with pesticide to rid the animals of ticks, lice, and other external parasites. In 1978, existing dip vat designs were very poor. The animals often panicked because they were forced to slide into the vat down a steep, slick concrete decline. They would refuse to jump into the vat, and sometimes they would flip over backward and drown. The engineers who designed the slide never thought about why the cattle became so frightened.


The first thing I did when I arrived at the feedlot was to put myself inside the cattle's heads and look out through their eyes. Because their eyes are on the sides of their heads, cattle have wide-angle vision, so it was like walking through the facility with a wide-angle video camera. I had spent the past six years studying how cattle see their world and watching thousands move through different facilities all over Arizona, and it was immediately obvious to me why they were scared. Those cattle must have felt as if they were being forced to jump down an airplane escape slide into the ocean.


Cattle are frightened by high contrasts of light and dark as well as by people and objects that move suddenly. I've seen cattle that were handled in two identical facilities easily walk through one and balk in the other. The only difference between the two facilities was their orientation to the sun. The cattle refused to move through the chute where the sun cast harsh shadows across it. Until I made this observation, nobody in the feedlot industry had been able to explain why one veterinary facility worked better than the other. It was a matter of observing the small details that made a big difference. To me, the dip vat problem was even more obvious.


My first step in designing a better system was collecting all the published information on existing dip vats. Before doing anything else, I always check out what is considered state-of-the-art so I don't waste time reinventing the wheel. Then I turned to livestock publications, which usually have very limited information, and my library of video memories, all of which contained bad designs. From experience with other types of equipment, such as unloading ramps for trucks, I had learned that cattle willingly walk down a ramp that has cleats to provide secure, non slip footing. Sliding causes them to panic and back up. The challenge was to design an entrance that would encourage the cattle to walk in voluntarily and plunge into the water, which was deep enough to submerge them completely, so that all the bugs, including those that collect in their ears, would be eliminated.


I started running three-dimensional visual simulations in my imagination. I experimented with different entrance designs and made the cattle walk through them in my imagination. Three images merged to form the final design: a memory of a dip vat in Yuma, Arizona, a portable vat I had seen in a magazine, and an entrance ramp I had seen on a restraint device at the Swift meat-packing plant in Tolleson, Arizona. The new dip vat entrance ramp was a modified version of the ramp I had seen there. My design contained three features that had never been used before: an entrance that would not scare the animals, an improved chemical filtration system, and the use of animal behavior principles to prevent the cattle from becoming overexcited when they left the vat.


The first thing I did was convert the ramp from steel to concrete. The final design had a concrete ramp on a twenty five-degree downward angle. Deep grooves in the concrete provided secure footing. The ramp appeared to enter the water gradually, but in reality it abruptly dropped away below the water's surface. The animals could not see the drop-off because the dip chemicals colored the water. When they stepped out over the water, they quietly fell in, because their center of gravity had passed the point of no return.


Before the vat was built, I tested the entrance design many times in my imagination. Many of the cowboys at the feedlot were skeptical and did not believe my design would work. After it was constructed, they modified it behind my back, because they were sure it was wrong. A metal sheet was installed over the non slip ramp, converting it back to an old-fashioned slide entrance. The first day they used it, two cattle drowned because they panicked and flipped over backward.


When I saw the metal sheet, I made the cowboys take it out. They were flabbergasted when they saw that the ramp now worked perfectly. Each calf stepped out over the steep drop-off and quietly plopped into the water. I fondly refer to this design as "cattle walking on water."


Over the years, I have observed that many ranchers and cattle feeders think that the only way to induce animals to enter handling facilities is to force them in. The owners and managers of feedlots sometimes have a hard time comprehending that if devices such as dip vats and restraint chutes are properly designed, cattle will voluntarily enter them. I can imagine the sensations the animals would feel. If I had a calf's body and hooves, I would be very scared to step on a slippery metal ramp.


There were still problems I had to resolve after the animals left the dip vat. The platform where they exit is usually divided into two pens so that cattle can dry on one side while the other side is being filled. No one understood why the animals coming out of the dip vat would sometimes become excited, but I figured it was because they wanted to follow their drier buddies, not unlike children divided from their classmates on a playground. I installed a solid fence between the two pens to prevent the animals on one side from seeing the animals on the other side. It was a very simple solution, and it amazed me that nobody had ever thought of it before.


The system I designed for filtering and cleaning the cattle hair and other gook out of the dip vat was based on a swimming pool filtration system. My imagination scanned two specific swimming pool filters that I had operated, one on my Aunt Brecheen's ranch in Arizona and one at our home. To prevent water from splashing out of the dip vat, I copied the concrete coping overhang used on swimming pools. That idea, like many of my best designs, came to me very clearly just before I drifted off to sleep at night.


Being autistic, I don't naturally assimilate information that most people take for granted. Instead, I store information in my head as if it were on a CD-ROM disc. When I recall something I have learned, I replay the video in my imagination. The videos in my memory are always specific; for example, I remember handling cattle at the veterinary chute at Producer's Feedlot or McElhaney Cattle Company. I remember exactly how the animals behaved in that specific situation and how the chutes and other equipment were built. The exact construction of steel fenceposts and pipe rails in each case is also part of my visual memory. I can run these images over and over and study them to solve design problems.


If I let my mind wander, the video jumps in a kind of free association from fence construction to a particular welding shop where I've seen posts being cut and Old John, the welder, making gates. If I continue thinking about Old John welding a gate, the video image changes to a series of short scenes of building gates on several projects I've worked on. Each video memory triggers another in this associative fashion, and my daydreams may wander far from the design problem. The next image may be of having a good time listening to John and the construction crew tell war stories, such as the time the backhoe dug into a nest of rattlesnakes and the machine was abandoned for two weeks because everybody was afraid to go near it.


This process of association is a good example of how my mind can wander off the subject. People with more severe autism have difficulty stopping endless associations. I am able to stop them and get my mind back on track. When I find my mind wandering too far away from a design problem I am trying to solve, I just tell myself to get back to the problem.


Interviews with autistic adults who have good speech and are able to articulate their thought processes indicate that most of them also think in visual images. More severely impaired people, who can speak but are unable to explain how they think, have highly associational thought patterns. Charles Hart, the author of "Without Reason", a book about his autistic son and brother, sums up his son's thinking in one sentence: "Ted's thought processes aren't logical, they're associational." This explains'~ Ted's statement "I'm not afraid of planes. That's why they fly so high." In his mind, planes fly high because he is not afraid of them; he combines two pieces of information, that planes fly high and that he is not afraid of heights.


Another indicator of visual thinking as the primary method of processing information is the remarkable ability many autistic people exhibit in solving jigsaw puzzles, finding their way around a city, or memorizing enormous amounts of information at a glance. My own thought patterns are similar to those described by A. R. Luria in The Mind of a Mnemonist. This book describes a man who worked as a newspaper reporter and could perform amazing feats of memory. Like me, the mnemonist had a visual image for everything he had heard or read. Luria writes, "For when he heard or read a word, it was at once converted into a visual image corresponding with the object the word signified for him." The great inventor Nikola Tesla was also a visual thinker. When he designed electric turbines for power generation, he built each turbine in his head. He operated it in his imagination and corrected faults. He said it did not matter whether the turbine was tested in his thoughts or in his shop; the results would be the same.


Early in my career I got into fights with other engineers at meat-packing plants. I couldn't imagine that they could be so stupid as not to see the mistakes on the drawing before the equipment was installed. Now I realize it was not stupidity but a lack of visualization skills. They literally could not see. I was fired from one company that manufactured meat-packing plant equipment because I fought with the engineers over a design which eventually caused the collapse of an overhead track that moved 1,200-pound beef carcasses from the end of a conveyor. As each carcass came off the conveyor, it dropped about three feet before it was abruptly halted by a chain attached to a trolley on the overhead track. The first time the machine was run, the track was pulled out of the ceiling. The employees fixed it by bolting it more securely and installing additional brackets. This only solved the problem temporarily, because the force of the carcasses jerking the chains was so great. Strengthening the overhead track was treating a symptom of the problem rather than its cause. I tried to warn them. It was like bending a paper clip back and forth too many times. After a while it breaks.


Different Ways of Thinking


The idea that people have different thinking patterns is not new. Francis Galton, in Inquiries into Human Faculty and Development, wrote that while some people see vivid mental pictures, for others "the idea is not felt to be mental pictures, but rather symbols of facts. In people with low pictorial imagery, they would remember their breakfast table but they could not see it.''

It wasn't until I went to college that I realized some people are completely verbal and think only in words. I first suspected this when I read an article in a science magazine about the development of tool use in prehistoric humans. Some renowned scientist speculated that humans had to develop language before they could develop tools. I thought this was ridiculous, and this article gave me the first inkling that my thought processes were truly different from those of many other people. When I invent things, I do not use language. Some other people think in vividly detailed pictures, but most think in a combination of words and vague, generalized pictures.


For example, many people see a generalized generic church rather than specific churches and steeples when they read or hear the word "steeple." Their thought patterns move from a general concept to specific examples. I used to become very frustrated when a verbal thinker could not understand something I was trying to express because he or she couldn't see the picture that was crystal clear to me. Further, my mind constantly revises general concepts as I add new information to my memory library. It's like getting a new version of software for the computer. My mind readily accepts the new "software," though I have observed that some people often do not readily accept new information.


Unlike those of most people, my thoughts move from video like, specific images to generalization and concepts. For example, my concept of dogs is inextricably linked to every dog I've ever known. It's as if I have a card catalog of dogs I have seen, complete with pictures, which continually grows as I add more examples to my video library. If I think about Great Danes, the first memory that pops into my head is Dansk, the Great Dane owned by the headmaster at my high school. The next Great Dane I visualize is Helga, who was Dansk's replacement. The next is my aunt's dog in Arizona, and my final image comes from an advertisement for Fitwell seat covers that featured that kind of dog. My memories usually appear in my imagination in strict chronological order, and the images I visualize are always specific. There is no generic, generalized Great Dane.


However, not all people with autism are highly visual thinkers, nor do they all process information this way. People throughout the world are on a continuum of visualization skills ranging from next to none, to seeing vague generalized pictures, to seeing semi-specific pictures, to seeing, as in my case, in very specific pictures.


I'm always forming new visual images when I invent new equipment or think of something novel and amusing. I can take images that I have seen, rearrange them, and create new pictures. For example, I can imagine what a dip vat would look like modeled on computer graphics by placing it on my memory of a friend's computer screen. Since his computer is not programmed to do the fancy 3-D rotary graphics, I take computer graphics I have seen on TV or in the movies and superimpose them in my memory. In my visual imagination the dip vat will appear in the kind of high quality computer graphics shown on Star Trek. I can then take a specific dip vat, such as the one at Red River, and redraw it on the computer screen in my mind. I can even duplicate the cartoonlike, three-dimensional skeletal image on the computer screen or imagine the dip vat as a videotape of the real thing.


Similarly, I learned how to draw engineering designs by closely observing a very talented draftsman when we worked together at the same feed yard construction company. David was able to render the most fabulous drawings effortlessly. After I left the company, I was forced to do all my own drafting. By studying David's drawings for many hours and photographing them in my memory, I was actually able to emulate David's drawing style. I laid some of his drawings out so I could look at them while I drew my first design. Then I drew my new plan and copied his style. After making three or four drawings, I no longer had to have his drawings out on the table. My video memory was now fully programmed. Copying designs is one thing, but after I drew the Red River drawings, I could not believe I had done them. At the time, I thought they were a gift from God. Another factor that helped me to learn to draw well was something as simple as using the same tools that David used. I used the same brand of pencil, and the ruler and straight edge forced me to slow down and trace the visual images in my imagination.


My artistic abilities became evident when I was in first and second grade. I had a good eye for color and painted watercolors of the beach. One time in fourth grade I modeled a lovely horse from clay. I just did it spontaneously, though I was not able to duplicate it. In high school and college I never attempted engineering drawing, but I learned the value of slowing down while drawing during a college art class. Our assignment had been to spend two hours drawing a picture of one of our shoes. The teacher insisted that the entire two hours be spent drawing that one shoe. I was amazed at how well my drawing came out. While my initial attempts at drafting were terrible, when I visualized myself as David, the draftsman, I'd automatically slow down.


Processing Nonvisual Information




Autistics have problems learning things that cannot be thought about in pictures. The easiest words for an autistic child to learn are nouns, because they directly relate to pictures. Highly verbal autistic children like I was can sometimes learn how to read with phonics. Written words were too abstract for me to remember, but I could laboriously remember the approximately fifty phonetic sounds and a few rules. Lower-functioning children often learn better by association, with the aid of word labels attached to objects in their environment. Some very impaired autistic children learn more easily if words are spelled out with plastic letters they can feel.

Spatial words such as "over" and "under" had no meaning for me until I had a visual image to fix them in my memory. Even now, when I hear the word "under" by itself, I automatically picture myself getting under the cafeteria tables at school during an air-raid drill, a common occurrence on the East Coast during the early fifties. The first memory that any single word triggers is almost always a childhood memory. I can remember the teacher telling us to be quiet and walking single-file into the cafeteria, where six or eight children huddled under each table. If I continue on the same train of thought, more and more associative memories of elementary school emerge. I can remember the teacher scolding me after I hit Alfred for putting dirt on my shoe. All of these memories play like videotapes in the VCR in my imagination. If I allow my mind to keep associating, it will wander a million miles away from the word "under," to submarines under the Antarctic and the Beatles song "Yellow Submarine." If I let my mind pause on the picture of the yellow submarine, I then hear the song. As I start humming the song and get to the part about people coming on board, my association switches to the gangway of a ship I saw in Australia.


I also visualize verbs. The word "jumping" triggers a memory of jumping hurdles at the mock Olympics held at my elementary school. Adverbs often trigger inappropriate images -- "quickly" reminds me of Nestle's Quik -- unless they are paired with a verb, which modifies my visual image. For example, "he ran quickly" triggers an animated image of Dick from the first-grade reading book running fast, and "he walked slowly" slows the image down. As a child, I left out words such as "is," "the," and "it," because they had no meaning by themselves. Similarly, words like "of," and "an" made no sense. Eventually I learned how to use them properly, because my parents always spoke correct English and I mimicked their speech patterns. To this day certain verb conjugations, such as "to be," are absolutely meaningless to me.


When I read, I translate written words into color movies or I simply store a photo of the written page to be read later. When I retrieve the material, I see a photocopy of the page in my imagination. I can then read it like a Teleprompter. It is likely that Raymond, the autistic savant depicted in the movie Rain Man, used a similar strategy to memorize telephone books, maps, and other information. He simply photocopied each page of the phone book into his memory. When he wanted to find a certain number, he just scanned pages of the phone book that were in his mind. To pull information out of my memory, I have to replay the video. Pulling facts up quickly is sometimes difficult, because I have to play bits of different videos until I find the right tape. This takes time.


When I am unable to convert text to pictures, it is usually because the text has no concrete meaning. Some philosophy books and articles about the cattle futures market are simply incomprehensible. It is much easier for me to understand written text that describes something that can be easily translated into pictures. The following sentence from a story in the February 21, 1994, issue of Time magazine, describing the Winter Olympics figure-skating championships, is a good example: "All the elements are in place -- the spotlights, the swelling waltzes and jazz tunes, the sequined sprites taking to the air." In my imagination I see the skating rink and skaters. However, if I ponder too long on the word "elements," I will make the inappropriate association of a periodic table on the wall of my high school chemistry classroom. Pausing on the word "sprite" triggers an image of a Sprite can in my refrigerator instead of a pretty young skater.


Teachers who work with autistic children need to understand associative thought patterns. An autistic child will often use a word in an inappropriate manner. Sometimes these uses have a logical associative meaning and other times they don't. For example, an autistic child might say the word "dog" when he wants to go outside. The word "dog" is associated with going outside. In my own case, I can remember both logical and illogical use of inappropriate words. When I was six, I learned to say "prosecution." I had absolutely no idea what it meant, but it sounded nice when I said it, so I used it as an exclamation every time my kite hit the ground. I must have baffled more than a few people who heard me exclaim "Prosecution!" to my downward-spiraling kite.


Discussions with other autistic people reveal similar visual styles of thinking about tasks that most people do sequentially. An autistic man who composes music told me that he makes "sound pictures" using small pieces of other music to create new compositions. A computer programmer with autism told me that he sees the general pattern of the program tree. After he visualizes the skeleton for the program, he simply writes the code for each branch. I use similar methods when I review scientific literature and troubleshoot at meat plants. I take specific findings or observations and combine them to find new basic principles and general concepts.


My thinking pattern always starts with specifics and works toward generalization in an associational and nonsequential way. As if I were attempting to figure out what the picture on a jigsaw puzzle is when only one third of the puzzle is completed, I am able to fill in the missing pieces by scanning my video library. Chinese mathematicians who can make large calculations in their heads work the same way. At first they need an abacus, the Chinese calculator, which consists of rows of beads on wires in a frame. They make calculations by moving the rows of beads. When a mathematician becomes really skilled, he simply visualizes the abacus in his imagination and no longer needs a real one. The beads move on a visualized video abacus in his brain.


Abstract Thought




Growing up, I learned to convert abstract ideas into pictures as a way to understand them. I visualized concepts such as peace or honesty with symbolic images. I thought of peace as a dove, an Indian peace pipe, or TV or newsreel footage of the signing of a peace agreement. Honesty was represented by an image of placing one's hand on the Bible in court. A news report describing a person returning a wallet with all the money in it provided a picture of honest behavior.

The Lord's Prayer was incomprehensible until I broke it down into specific visual images. The power and the glory were represented by a semicircular rainbow and an electrical tower. These childhood visual images are still triggered every time I hear the Lord's Prayer. The words "thy will be done" had no meaning when I was a child, and today the meaning is still vague. Will is a hard concept to visualize. When I think about it, I imagine God throwing a lightning bolt. Another adult with autism wrote that he visualized "Thou art in heaven" as God with an easel above the clouds. "Trespassing" was pictured as black and orange NO TRESPASSING signs. The word "Amen" at the end of the prayer was a mystery: a man at the end made no sense.


As a teenager and young adult I had to use concrete symbols to understand abstract concepts such as getting along with people and moving on to the next steps of my life, both of which were always difficult. I knew I did not fit in with my high school peers, and I was unable to figure out what I was doing wrong. No matter how hard I tried, they made fun of me. They called me "workhorse," "tape recorder," and "bones" because I was skinny. At the time I was able to figure out why they~ called me "workhorse" and "bones," but "tape recorder" puzzled me. Now I realize that I must have sounded like a tape recorder when I repeated things verbatim over and over. But back then I just could not figure out why I was such a social dud. I sought refuge in doing things I was good at, such as working on reroofing the barn or practicing my riding prior to a horse show. Personal relationships made absolutely no sense to me until I developed visual symbols of doors and windows. It was then that I started to understand concepts such as learning the give-and-take of a relationship. I still wonder what would have happened to me if I had not been able to visualize my way in the world.


The really big challenge for me was making the transition from high school to college. People with autism have tremendous difficulty with change. In order to deal with a major change such as leaving high school, I needed a way to rehearse it, acting out each phase in my life by walking through an actual door, window, or gate. When I was graduating from high school, I would go and sit on the roof of my dormitory and look up at the stars and think about how I would cope with leaving. It was there I discovered a little door that led to a bigger roof while my dormitory was being remodeled. While I was still living in this o1d New England house, a much larger building was being constructed over it. One day the carpenters tore out a section of the o1d roof next to my room. When I walked out, I was now able to look up into the partially finished new building. High on one side was a small wooden door that led to the new roof. The building was changing and it was now time for me to change too. I could relate to that. I had found the symbolic key.


When I was in college, I found another door to symbolize getting ready for graduation. It was a small metal trap door that went out onto the flat roof of the dormitory. I had to actually practice going through this door many times. When I finally graduated from Franklin Pierce, I walked through a third, very important door, on the library roof.


I no longer use actual physical doors or gates to symbolize each transition in my life. When I reread years of diary entries while writing this book, a clear pattern emerged. Each door or gate enabled me to move on to the next level. My life was a series of incremental steps. I am often asked what the single breakthrough was that enabled me to adapt to autism. There was no single breakthrough. It was a series of incremental improvements. My diary entries show very clearly that I was fully aware that when I mastered one door, it was only one step in a whole series.


April 22, 1970

Today everything is completed at Franklin Pierce College and it is now time to walk through the little door in the library. I ponder now about what I should leave as a message on the library roof for future people to find. I have reached the top of one step and I am now at the bottom step of graduate school. For the top of the building is the highest point on campus and I have gone as far as I can go now. I have conquered the summit of FPC. Higher ones still remain unchallenged. - Class 70


I went through the little door tonight and placed the plaque on the top of the library roof. I was not as nervous this time. I had been much more nervous in the past. Now I have already made it and the little door and the mountain had already been climbed. The conquering of this mountain is only the beginning for the next mountain.


The word commencement means beginning and the top of the library is the beginning of graduate school. It is human nature to strive, and this is why people will climb mountains. The reason why is that people strive to prove that they could do it.


After all, why should we send a man to the moon? The only real justification is that it is human nature to keep striving out. Man is never satisfied with one goal he keeps
reaching. The real reason for going to the library roof was to prove that I could do it.


During my life I have been faced with five or six major doors or gates to go through. I graduated from Franklin Pierce, a small liberal arts college, in 1970, with a degree in psychology, and moved to Arizona to get a Ph.D. As I found myself getting less interested in psychology and more interested in cattle and animal science, I prepared myself for another big change in my life -- switching from a psychology major to an animal science major. On May 8, 1971, I wrote:


I feel as if I am being pulled more and more in the farm direction. I walked through the cattle chute gate but I am still holding on tightly to the gate post. The wind is blowing harder and harder and I feel that I will let go of the gate post and go back to the farm; at least for a while. Wind has played an important part in many of the doors. On the roof, the wind was blowing. Maybe this is a symbol that the next level that is reached is not ultimate and that I must keep moving on. At the party [a psychology department party] I felt completely out of place and it seems as if the wind is causing my hands to slip from the gate post so that I can ride free on the wind.

At that time I still struggled in the social arena, largely because I didn't have a concrete visual corollary for the abstraction known as "getting along with people." An image finally presented itself to me while I was washing the bay window in the cafeteria (students were required to do jobs in the dining room). I had no idea my job would take on symbolic significance when I started. The bay window consisted of three glass sliding doors enclosed by storm windows. To wash the inside of the bay window, I had to crawl through the sliding door. The door jammed while I was washing the inside panes, and I was imprisoned between the two windows. In order to get out without shattering the door, I had to ease it back very carefully. It struck me that relationships operate the same way. They also shatter easily and have to be approached carefully. I then made a further association about how the careful opening of doors was related to establishing relationships in the first place. While I was trapped between the windows, it was almost impossible to communicate through the glass. Being autistic is like being trapped like this. The windows symbolized my feelings of disconnection from other people and helped me cope with the isolation. Throughout my life, door and window symbols have enabled me to make progress and connections that are unheard of for some people with autism.


In more severe cases of autism, the symbols are harder to understand and often appear to be totally unrelated to the things they represent. D. Park and P. Youderian described the use of visual symbols and numbers by Jessy Park, then a twelve-year-old autistic girl, to describe abstract concepts such as good and bad. Good things, such as rock music, were represented by drawings of four doors and no clouds. Jessy rated most classical music as pretty good, drawing two doors and two clouds. The spoken word was rated as very bad, with a rating of zero doors and four clouds. She had formed a visual rating system using doors and clouds to describe these abstract qualities. Jessy also had an elaborate system of good and bad numbers, though researchers have not been able to decipher her system fully.


Many people are totally baffled by autistic symbols, but to an autistic person they may provide the only tangible reality or understanding of the world. For example, "French toast" may mean happy if the child was happy while eating it. When the child visualizes a piece of French toast, he becomes happy. A visual image or word becomes associated with an experience. Clara Park, Jessy's mother, described her daughter's fascination with objects such as electric blanket controls and heaters. She had no idea why the objects were so important to Jessy, though she did observe that Jessy was happiest, and her voice was no longer a monotone, when she was thinking about her special things. Jessy was able to talk, but she was unable to tell people why her special things were important. Perhaps she associated electric blanket controls and heaters with warmth and security. The word "cricket" made her happy, and "partly heard song" meant "I don't know." The autistic mind works via these visual associations. At some point in Jessy's life, a partly heard song was associated with not knowing.


Ted Hart, a man with severe autism, has almost no ability to generalize and no flexibility in his behavior. His father, Charles, described how on one occasion Ted put wet clothes in the dresser after the dryer broke. He just went on to the next step in a clothes-washing sequence that he had learned by rote. He has no common sense. I would speculate that such rigid behavior and lack of ability to generalize may be partly due to having little or no ability to change or modify visual memories. Even though my memories of things are stored as individual specific memories, I am able to modify my mental images. For example, I can imagine a church painted in different colors or put the steeple of one church onto the roof of another; but when I hear somebody say the word "steeple," the first church that I see in my imagination is almost always a childhood memory and not a church image that I have manipulated. This ability to modify images in my imagination helped me to learn how to generalize.


Today, I no longer need door symbols. Over the years I have built up enough real experiences and information from articles and books I have read to be able to make changes and take necessary steps as new situations present themselves. Plus, I have always been an avid reader, and I am driven to take in more and more information to add to my video library. A severely autistic computer programmer once said that reading was "taking in information." For me, it is like programming a computer.


Visual Thinking and Mental Imagery




Recent studies of patients with brain damage and of brain imaging indicate that visual and verbal thought may work via different brain systems. Recordings of blood flow in the brain indicate that when a person visualizes something such as walking through his neighborhood, blood flow increases dramatically in the visual cortex, in parts of the brain that are working hard. Studies of brain-damaged patients show that injury to the left posterior hemisphere can stop the generation of visual images from stored long-term memories, while language and verbal memory are not impaired. This indicates that visual imagery and verbal thought may depend on distinct neurological systems.

The visual system may also contain separate subsystems for mental imagery and image rotation. Image rotation skills appear to be located on the right side of the brain, whereas visual imagery is in the left rear of the brain. In autism, it is possible that the visual system has expanded to make up for verbal and sequencing deficits. The nervous system has a remarkable ability to compensate when it is damaged. Another part can take over for a damaged part.


Recent research by Dr. Pascual-Leone at the National Institutes of Health indicates that exercising a visual skill can make the brain's motor map expand. Research with musicians indicates that real practice on the piano and imagining playing the piano have the same effect on motor maps, as measured by brain scans. The motor maps expand during both real piano playing and mental imagery; random pushing of the keys has no effect. Athletes have also found that both mental practice and real practice can improve a motor skill. Research with patients with damage to the hippocampus has indicated that conscious memory of events and motor learning are separate neurological systems. A patient with hippocampal damage can learn a motor task and get better with practice, but each time he practices he will have no conscious memory of doing the task. The motor circuits become trained, but damage to the hippocampus prevents the formation of new conscious memories. Therefore, the motor circuits learn a new task, such as solving a simple mechanical puzzle, but the person does not remember seeing or doing the puzzle. With repeated practice, the person gets better and better at it, but each time the puzzle is presented, he says he has never seen it before.


I am fortunate in that I am able to build on my library of images and visualize solutions based on those pictures. However, most people with autism lead extremely limited lives, in part because they cannot handle any deviation from their routine. For me, every experience builds on the visual memories I carry from prior experience, and in this way my world continues to grow.


About two years ago I made a personal breakthrough when I was hired to remodel a meat plant that used very cruel restraint methods during kosher slaughter. Prior to slaughter, live cattle were hung upside down by a chain attached to one back leg. It was so horrible I could not stand to watch it. The frantic bellows of terrified cattle could be heard in both the office and the parking lot. Sometimes an animal's back leg was broken during hoisting. This dreadful practice totally violated the humane intent of kosher slaughter. My job was to rip out this cruel system and replace it with a chute that would hold the animal in a standing position while the rabbi performed kosher slaughter. Done properly, the animal should remain calm and would not be frightened.


The new restraining chute was a narrow metal stall which held one steer. It was equipped with a yoke to hold the animal's head, a rear pusher gate to nudge the steer forward into the yoke, and a belly restraint which was raised under the belly like an elevator. To operate the restrainer, the operator had to push six hydraulic control levers in the proper sequence to move the entrance and discharge gates as well as the head- and body-positioning devices. The basic design of this chute had been around for about thirty years, but I added pressure-regulating devices and changed some critical dimensions to make it more comfortable for the animal and to prevent excessive pressure from being applied.


Prior to actually operating the chute at the plant, I ran it in the machine shop before it was shipped. Even though no cattle were present, I was able to program my visual and tactile memory with images of operating the chute. After running the empty chute for five minutes, I had accurate mental pictures of how the gates and other parts of the apparatus moved. I also had tactile memories of how the levers on this particular chute felt when pushed. Hydraulic valves are like musical instruments; different brands of valves have a different feel, just as different types of wind instruments do. Operating the controls in the machine shop enabled me to practice later via mental imagery. I had to visualize the actual controls on the chute and, in my imagination, watch my hands pushing the levers. I could feel in my mind how much force was needed to move the gates at different speeds. I rehearsed the procedure many times in my mind with different types of cattle entering the chute.


On the first day of operation at the plant, I was able to walk up to the chute and run it almost perfectly. It worked best when I operated the hydraulic levers unconsciously, like using my legs for walking. If I thought about the levers, I got all mixed up and pushed them the wrong way. I had to force myself to relax and just allow the restrainer to become part of my body, while completely forgetting about the levers. As each animal entered, I concentrated on moving the apparatus slowly and gently so as not to scare him. I watched his reactions so that I applied only enough pressure to hold him snugly. Excessive pressure would cause discomfort. If his ears were laid back against his head or he struggled, I knew I had squeezed him too hard. Animals are very sensitive to hydraulic equipment. They feel the smallest movement of the control levers.


Through the machine I reached out and held the animal. When I held his head in the yoke, I imagined placing my hands on his forehead and under his chin and gently easing him into position. Body boundaries seemed to disappear, and I had no awareness of pushing the levers. The rear pusher gate and head yoke became an extension of my hands.


People with autism sometimes have body boundary problems. They are unable to judge by feel where their body ends and the chair they are sitting on or the object they are holding begins, much like what happens when a person loses a limb but still experiences the feeling of the limb being there. In this case, the parts of the apparatus that held the animal felt as if they were a continuation of my own body, similar to the phantom limb effect. If I just concentrated on holding the animal gently and keeping him calm, I was able to run the restraining chute very skillfully.


During this intense period of concentration I no longer heard noise from the plant machinery. I didn't feel the sweltering Alabama summer heat, and everything seemed quiet and serene. It was almost a religious experience. It was my job to hold the animal gently, and it was the rabbi's job to perform the final deed. I was able to look at each animal, to hold him gently and make him as comfortable as possible during the last moments of his life. I had participated in the ancient slaughter ritual the way it was supposed to be. A new door had been opened. It felt like walking on water.


2006 Update to Chapter 1




Since I wrote Thinking in Pictures, brain imaging studies have provided more insights into how the brain of a person on the autism/Asperger spectrum processes information. Nancy Minshew at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh has found that normal brains tend to ignore the details while people on the autism spectrum tend to focus on the details instead of larger concepts. To view this phenomenon, she had normal, Asperger, and autistic people read sentences while they were in a scanner. The autistic brain was most active in the part of the brain that processes the individual words while the normal brain was most active in the part that analyzes the whole sentence. The Asperger brain was active in both areas. Eric Courchesne at the University of California in San Diego states that autism may be a disorder of brain circuit disconnections. This would affect the ability to integrate detailed information from lower parts of the brain where sensory based memories are stored with higher level information processing in the frontal cortex. Lower level processing systems may be spared or possibly enhanced. He discovered in an autistic person that the only parts of the brain that are normal are the visual cortex and the areas in the rear of the brain that store memories. This finding helps explain my visual thinking. Scans of autistic brains have indicated that the white matter in the frontal cortex is overgrown and abnormal. Dr. Courchesne explains that white matter is the brain's "computer cables" connecting up different parts of the brain while the gray matter forms the information processing circuits. Instead of growing normally and connecting various parts of the brain together, the autistic frontal cortex has excessive overgrowth much like a thicket of tangled computer cables. In the normal brain, reading a word and speaking a word are processed in different parts of the brain. Connecting circuits between these two areas makes It possible to simultaneously process information from both of them. Both Courchesne and Minshew agree that a basic problem in both autistic and Asperger brains is a failure of the "computer cables" to fully connect together the many different localized brain systems. Local systems may have normal or enhanced internal connections but the long distance connections between the different local systems may be poor.

I am now going to use what I call visual symbol imagery to help you understand how the different parts of the normal brain communicate with each other. Think of the normal brain as a big corporate office building. All the different departments such as legal, accounting, advertising, sales, and the CEO's office are connected together by many communication systems such as e-mail, telephones, fax machines, and electronic messaging. The autistic/Asperger brain is like an office building where some of the interdepartmental communication systems are not hooked up. Minshew calls this underconnectivity in the brain. More systems would be hooked up in an Asperger brain than in the brain of a low-functioning individual. The great variability in autistic/ Asperger symptoms probably depends on which "cables" get connected and which "cables" do not get connected. Poor communication between brain departments is likely the cause of uneven skills. People on the spectrum are often good at one thing and bad at something else. To use the computer cable analogy, the limited number of good cables may connect up one area and leave the other areas with poor connections.


Develop Talents in Specialized Brains




When I wrote Thinking in Pictures I thought most people on the autism spectrum were visual thinkers like me. After talking to hundreds of families and individuals with autism or Asperger's, I have observed that there are actually different types of specialized brains. All people on the spectrum think in details, but there are three basic categories of specialized brains. Some individuals may be combinations of these categories.

  1. Visual thinkers, like me, think in photographically specific images. There are degrees of specificity of visual thinking. I can test run a machine in my head with full motion. Interviews with nonautistic visual thinkers indicated that they can only visualize still images. These images may range in specificity from images of specific places to more vague conceptual images. Learning algebra was impossible and a foreign language was difficult. Highly specific visual thinkers should skip algebra and study more visual forms of math such as trigonometry or geometry. Children who are visual thinkers will often be good at drawing, other arts, and building things with building toys such as Lego's. Many children who are visual thinkers like maps, flags, and photographs. Visual thinkers are well suited to jobs in drafting, graphic design, training animals, auto mechanics, jewelry making, construction, and factory automation.
  2. Music and math thinkers think in patterns. These people often excel at math, chess, and computer programming. Some of these individuals have explained to me that they see patterns and relationships between patterns and numbers instead of photographic images. As children they may play music by ear and be interested in music. Music and math minds often have careers in computer programming, chemistry, statistics, engineering, music, and physics. Written language is not required for pattern thinking. The pre-literate Incas used complex bundles of knotted cords to keep track of taxes, labor, and trading among a thousand people.
  3. Verbal logic thinkers think in word details. They often love history, foreign languages, weather statistics, and stock market reports. As children they often have a vast knowledge of sports scores. They are not visual thinkers and they are often poor at drawing. Children with speech delays are more likely to become visual or music and math thinkers. Many of these individuals had no speech delays, and they became word specialists. These individuals have found successful careers in language translation, journalism, accounting, speech therapy, special education, library work, or financial analysis.

Since brains on the autistic spectrum are specialized, there needs to be more educational emphasis on building up their strengths instead of just working on their deficits. Tutoring me in algebra was useless because there was nothing for me to visualize. If I have no picture, I have no thought. Unfortunately I never had an opportunity to try trigonometry or geometry. Teachers and parents need to develop the child's talents into skills that can eventually turn into satisfying jobs or hobbies.


Concept Formation



All individuals on the autism/Asperger spectrum have difficulties with forming concepts. Problems with conceptual thought occur in all of the specialized brain types. Conceptual thinking occurs in the frontal cortex. The frontal cortex is analogous to the CEO's office in a corporation. Researchers refer to frontal cortex deficits as problems with execution function. In normal brains, "computer cables" from all parts of the brain converge on the frontal cortex. The frontal cortex integrates information fi7om thinking, emotional, and sensory parts of the brain. The degree of difficulty in forming concepts is probably related to the number and type of 11 computer cables" that are not hooked up. Since my CEO's office has poor "computer" connections, I had to use the "graphic designers" in my "advertising department" to form concepts by associating visual details into categories. Scientific research supports my idea. Detailed visual and musical memories reside in the lower primary visual and auditory cortex and more conceptual thinking is in association areas where inputs from different parts of the brain are merged.

Categories are the beginning of concept formation. Nancy Minshew found that people with autism can easily sort objects into categories such as red or blue, but they have difficulty thinking up new categories for groups of common objects. If I put a variety of common things on a table such as staplers, pencils, books, an envelope, a clock, hats, golf balls, and a tennis racquet, and asked an individual with autism to pick out objects containing paper, they could do it. However, they often have difficulty when asked to make tip new categories. Teachers should work on teaching flexibility of thinking by playing a game where the autistic individual is asked to make up new categories for the objects like objects containing metal, or objects used in sports. Then the teacher should get the person to explain the reason for putting an object in a specific category.


When I was a child I originally categorized dogs from cats by size. That no longer worked when our neighbors got a small dachshund. I had to learn to categorize small dogs fi7om cats by finding a visual feature that all the dogs had and none of the cats had. All dogs, no matter how small, have the same nose. This is sensory-based thinking, not language-based. The animals could also be categorized by sound, barking versus meowing. A lower functioning person may categorize them by smell or touch because those senses provide more accurate information. Dividing information into distinct categories is a fundamental property of the nervous system. Studies with bees, rats, and monkeys all indicate that information is placed into categories with sharp boundaries. French scientists recorded signals from the frontal cortex of a monkey's brain while it was looking at computer generated images of dogs that gradually turned into cats. There was a distinct change in the brain signal when the category switched to cat. In the frontal cortex, the animal image was either a dog or a cat. When categorizing cats from dogs by size no longer worked for me, I had to form a new category of nose type. Research by Itzahak Fried at UCLA has shown that individual neurons learn to respond to specific categories. Recordings taken from patients undergoing brain surgery showed that one neuron may respond only to pictures of food and another neuron win respond only to pictures of animals. This neuron will not respond to pictures of people or objects. In another patient, a neuron in the hippocampus responded to pictures of a movie actress both in and out of costume but it did not respond to pictures of other women. The hippocampus is like the brain's file finder for locating information in stored memory.


Becoming More Normal



More knowledge makes me act more normal. Many people have commented to me that I act much less autistic now than I did ten years ago. A person who attended one of my talks in 2005 wrote on my evaluation, "I saw Temple in 1996, it was fun to see the poise and presentation manner she has gained over the years." My mind works Just like an Internet search engine that has been set to access only images. The more pictures I have stored in the Internet inside my brain the more templates I have of how to act in a new situation. More and more information can be placed in more and more categories. The categories can be placed in trees of master categories with many subcategories. For example, there are jokes that make people laugh and jokes that do not work.

There is then a subcategory of jokes that can only be told to close friends. When I was a teenager I was called "tape recorder" because I used scripted lines. As I gained experience, my conversation became less scripted because I could combine new information in new ways. To help understand the autistic brain I recommend that teachers and parents should play with an Internet search engine such as Google for images. It will give people who are more verbal thinkers an understanding into how visual associative thinking works. People with music and math minds have a search engine that finds associations between patterns and numbers.


The Asperger individual who is a verbal logic thinker uses verbal categories. For example, Dr. Minshew had an Asperger patient who had a bad side effect with a medication. Explaining the science of why he should try a different medication was useless. However, he became willing to try a new medication after he was simply told, the pink pills made you sick and I want you to try the blue pills. He agreed to try the blue pills.


The more I learn, the more I realize more and more that how I think and feel is different. My thinking is different from a normal person, but it is also very different from the verbal logic nonvisual person with Asperger's. They create word categories instead of picture categories. The one common denominator of all autistic and Asperger thinking is that details are associated into categories to form a concept. Details are assembled into concepts like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. The picture on the puzzle can be seen when only 20 percent of the puzzle is put together, forming a big picture.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Thoughts in writing

I saw this video in You Tube and it reminds me of a few of my past students who were not taught how to spell,write or read by anybody.They had the skill I believe when they were born.It is what we call "splinter skills" or "savant skill".

Savant gifts, or splinter skills, may be exhibited in the following skill areas or domains: memory; hyperlexia (ie the exceptional ability to read, spell and write); art; music; mechanical or spatial skill; calendar calculation; mathematical calculation; sensory sensitivity; athletic performance; and computer ability. These skills may be remarkable in contrast to the disability of autism, or may be in fact prodigious when viewed in relation to the non-disabled person.

I can recall a former student who st the time i handled him was 8 years old.His mom told me that he started spelling words before he can talk at 8 or 10 months old.She told me they were shocked to see him spell out a word using his toy alphabet.Thats when they knew he can read and he can spell.

They started engouraging him by buying more toys that he can use for playing and spelling and they started buying him books.He loved books,he doesnt want toys like other children.Everyday this boy would ask his mom to bring him to a bookstore to buy books but since they cannot afford to buy one everyday,it was enough for him to go to the bookstore and read there.He scans,he doesnt read.You can see this by looking on how fast his eyes moves and how fast he turns the pages.But when I ask him about what he read,he cannot answer me.Its all locked up in his brain.

Watch in this video how this boy is holding the pen.Most of my students holds the pen or pencil the wrong way.It's because they learned to write on their own.






Monday, April 23, 2007

Sensory Integration

I started teaching a 7 year old boy with Autism today.I do not know yet anything about him..I'm still observing and teaching as I see the need.Like he is always lying down,leaning against somebody..a teacher,a classmate.

He is also most of the time out of focus..there are so many reasons that can be attributed to this.Its a new school for him,new surrounding,new classmates,new teachers.I also noticed that he is very sensitive to touch.He reacts when u hold his hand.These things can cause a sensory overload to CWA.And may cause tantrums,nervous reactions like crying or giggling and a lot more others.

First time I saw him when I entered the classroom the regular teacher is having a hard time making him sit still and stop from eating his booger.I intervened and brought him to a corner of the room and talked to him about what he's doing.He has fleeting eye contact so I was asking him to look me in the eye while I was talking.

I told him to stop eating his booger.He did not answer.I repeated myself while I was asking him to look at me and answer me.When he said okay,I asked him if he wants to go back to join the class and he said "ok".He was getting impatient and was already crying.I warned him that if he eats his booger again or he misbehaves,I will bring him out of the room.

He joined the rest of the class but in a few minutes he started eating it again.I brought him to a separate room and I reminded him what we talked about.These children are very smart,they can understand things well,with the proper way of talking,simple words,short sentences,give time for them to respond.And always encourage eye contact.We both stayed there for a few minutes.I instructed him to tell me when he is ready to go back and join the class again but he listen to the teacher,work with the class and stop eating his booger.

After a few minutes he said "Over there"..meaning he wants to join the class.I asked him "You want to go back inside the room?" He said "Okay".I wanted to teach him how to say it properly but this can be done some other time.It will be too much to ask since I'm already teaching him to behave inside a classroom,stop eating his booger,etc.I can teach him how to say things properly some other days when I feel its time.

We both went inside the room and he was fine the rest of the class until dismissal time.

Sensory Integration

Children and adults with autism, as well as those with other developmental disabilities, may have a dysfunctional sensory system. Sometimes one or more senses are either over- or under-reactive to stimulation. Such sensory problems may be the underlying reason for such behaviors as rocking, spinning, and hand-flapping. Although the receptors for the senses are located in the peripheral nervous system (which includes everything but the brain and spinal cord), it is believed that the problem stems from neurological dysfunction in the central nervous system--the brain. As described by individuals with autism, sensory integration techniques, such as pressure-touch can facilitate attention and awareness, and reduce overall arousal. Temple Grandin, in her descriptive book, Emergence: Labeled Autistic, relates the distress and relief of her sensory experiences.


Sensory integration is an innate neurobiological process and refers to the integration and interpretation of sensory stimulation from the environment by the brain. In contrast, sensory integrative dysfunction is a disorder in which sensory input is not integrated or organized appropriately in the brain and may produce varying degrees of problems in development, information processing, and behavior. A general theory of sensory integration and treatment has been developed by Dr. A. Jean Ayres from studies in the neurosciences and those pertaining to physical development and neuromuscular function. This theory is presented in this paper.


Sensory integration focuses primarily on three basic senses--tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive. Their interconnections start forming before birth and continue to develop as the person matures and interacts with his/her environment. The three senses are not only interconnected but are also connected with other systems in the brain. Although these three sensory systems are less familiar than vision and audition, they are critical to our basic survival. The inter-relationship among these three senses is complex. Basically, they allow us to experience, interpret, and respond to different stimuli in our environment. The three sensory systems will be discussed below.


Tactile System: The tactile system includes nerves under the skin's surface that send information to the brain. This information includes light touch, pain, temperature, and pressure. These play an important role in perceiving the environment as well as protective reactions for survival.


Dysfunction in the tactile system can be seen in withdrawing when being touched, refusing to eat certain 'textured' foods and/or to wear certain types of clothing, complaining about having one's hair or face washed, avoiding getting one's hands dirty (i.e., glue, sand, mud, finger-paint), and using one's finger tips rather than whole hands to manipulate objects. A dysfunctional tactile system may lead to a misperception of touch and/or pain (hyper- or hyposensitive) and may lead to self-imposed isolation, general irritability, distractibility, and hyperactivity.


Tactile defensiveness is a condition in which an individual is extremely sensitive to light touch. Theoretically, when the tactile system is immature and working improperly, abnormal neural signals are sent to the cortex in the brain which can interfere with other brain processes. This, in turn, causes the brain to be overly stimulated and may lead to excessive brain activity, which can neither be turned off nor organized. This type of over-stimulation in the brain can make it difficult for an individual to organize one's behavior and concentrate and may lead to a negative emotional response to touch sensations.


Vestibular System: The vestibular system refers to structures within the inner ear (the semi-circular canals) that detect movement and changes in the position of the head. For example, the vestibular system tells you when your head is upright or tilted (even with your eyes closed). Dysfunction within this system may manifest itself in two different ways. Some children may be hypersensitive to vestibular stimulation and have fearful reactions to ordinary movement activities (e.g., swings, slides, ramps, inclines). They may also have trouble learning to climb or descend stairs or hills; and they may be apprehensive walking or crawling on uneven or unstable surfaces. As a result, they seem fearful in space. In general, these children appear clumsy. On the other extreme, the child may actively seek very intense sensory experiences such as excessive body whirling, jumping, and/or spinning. This type of child demonstrates signs of a hypo-reactive vestibular system; that is, they are trying continuously to stimulate their vestibular systems.


Proprioceptive System: The proprioceptive system refers to components of muscles, joints, and tendons that provide a person with a subconscious awareness of body position. When proprioception is functioning efficiently, an individual's body position is automatically adjusted in different situations; for example, the proprioceptive system is responsible for providing the body with the necessary signals to allow us to sit properly in a chair and to step off a curb smoothly. It also allows us to manipulate objects using fine motor movements, such as writing with a pencil, using a spoon to drink soup, and buttoning one's shirt. Some common signs of proprioceptive dysfunction are clumsiness, a tendency to fall, a lack of awareness of body position in space, odd body posturing, minimal crawling when young, difficulty manipulating small objects (buttons, snaps), eating in a sloppy manner, and resistance to new motor movement activities.


Another dimension of proprioception is praxis or motor planning. This is the ability to plan and execute different motor tasks. In order for this system to work properly, it must rely on obtaining accurate information from the sensory systems and then organizing and interpreting this information efficiently and effectively.


Implications: In general, dysfunction within these three systems manifests itself in many ways. A child may be over- or under-responsive to sensory input; activity level may be either unusually high or unusually low; a child may be in constant motion or fatigue easily. In addition, some children may fluctuate between these extremes. Gross and/or fine motor coordination problems are also common when these three systems are dysfunctional and may result in speech/language delays and in academic under-achievement. Behaviorally, the child may become impulsive, easily distractible, and show a general lack of planning. Some children may also have difficulty adjusting to new situations and may react with frustration, aggression, or withdrawal.


Evaluation and treatment of basic sensory integrative processes is performed by occupational therapists and/or physical therapists. The therapist's general goals are: (1) to provide the child with sensory information which helps organize the central nervous system, (2) to assist the child in inhibiting and/or modulating sensory information, and (3) to assist the child in processing a more organized response to sensory stimuli.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

New research

Gene mutation in autism identified


French scientists have identified genetic mutations in a small number of children with autism which could provide insight into the biological basis of the disorder.


They sequenced a gene called SHANK3 in more than 200 people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), which includes autism, and found mutations in the gene in members of three families.


ASD covers a range of problems that affect communication, social interaction, verbal skills and behaviour.


"These mutations concern only a small number of individuals, but they shed light on one gene ... that is involved in autism spectrum disorders," Thomas Bourgeron, of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, said in a report in the journal Nature Genetics.


ASD, which affect six out of 1,000 children, range from mild to severe forms. The disorders are caused by chromosomal rearrangements in 3 to 6 per cent of cases.


In people with cognitive deficits and with autistic behaviour a part of their chromosome 22 is often affected. That region contains the SHANK3 gene.


In all three families identified in the study, the researchers found they had various types of mutations in the gene. Two brothers in one family had small deletions, while another child in a different family had significant deletions.


A girl with a deletion of SHANK 3 in the third family suffered from autism while her brother, who had an additional copy of the gene, had a mild form of autism called Asperger syndrome.


The cause of autism is unknown. It usually develops before the age of 30 months. A minority of autistic children, who are known as autistic savants, show remarkable artistic, musical or mathematical skills.


The protein encoded by SHANK3 interacts with other proteins called neuroligins, which have a role in giving impulses to the brain, spinal column and nerves.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Individual educational Program

Student(name withheld) is 9 year old CWA.He has not adopted yet to a regular classroom setting.He wanders off when in a line.He has difficulty waiting during take turning activities.He has difficulty making friends and working in groups.He does not greet anybody when he enters a room.He has difficulty transitioning when an activity comes to an end.He has low expressive and receptive language for his age.He is fascinated with fairy tale books and he keeps on talking about the books the whole time he is in class.He makes unnecessary noises while role playing the characters in the books that he reads like the witch in Snow White.When stimulated he jumps,runs and shouts inside the classroom.He also exhibits self stimulating activities using his hands.I also observed that he has more difficulty in transition after outdoor play.And he cannot do any work nor can participate in any classroom activity anymore after.


ficulty waiting during take turning activities.He stands when ting.Displays

Long Term Goal : Annual Goal


He will be able to cope with Regular Classroom Setting in Keys:


a.He will be able to learn turn taking activities through adult instruction and peer interaction.He will demonstrate turn taking in 7 out of 10 times with peers and 9 out of 10 with adult supervision(with no more than 2 prompts).


b.He will learn to make eye contact and greet people when he enters a room.He will learn to greet someone 7 out of 10 times when he enters a room with prompting.And 2 out of 10 without prompting.


c.He will learn to transition smoothly from one subject to another around 5 minutes before the subject or activity ends,he will be informed that activity is about to end and will be shown a cue card or the maracas.He will also be given notices orally.


By the end of the schoolyear he will be able to transition smoothly in 9 out of 10 times taken at 3 different trials.


d.He will work legibly and produce quality assignments and tasks.He will do assigned tasks with adult instructions.He will do it in 4 out of 5 times with prompting.And 2 out of 5 times without prompting.


e. He will use appropriate language at all times and will display self control.He will ask for a break when he is getting stimulated.He will do this 7 out of 10 times with adult instruction.teachers will watch out and ask him if he needs time out when starting to be stimulated.He will request for a time out in 5 out of 10 times without the teachers prompting.


f. He will work quietly without distracting others.He will not make any unnecessary noise while working on any activity.He will be reminded to keep quiet when he starts making noise.He will be instructed to use inner voice when he talks.He will do this 4 out of 10 times with adult prompting.


g. He will exhibit anger management.When he gets frustrated he will ask for a time out.He will do this 4 out of 5 attempts with adult prompting.He will ask for a time out to calm himself down when frustrated 3 out of 5 times without adult prompting.


h. He will work independently during.......


a.Circle time/Meeting


b.Music


c.Arts


d.Social Studies



Short Term Goals:


He will be accountable for inappropriate actions.


1.Using 2 Contracts he will be encouraged to sit and join the class in all classroom activities.He will be given breaks in between the classes to give him time to relax.He will remain sitted while listening to the teacher 5 out of 10 times with prompting (both physical and verbal).


a.Its been noticed that he shows signs of stress/distractibility or stimulation during Math Subject.Its suggested that he is given more breaks during this time until the time when he has fully adjusted in joining this Subject.He will join the Math Subject and remain sitted in 4 out of 10 times with prompting.He will ask for a time out in 6 out of 10 times while the teacher is talking or while there is an ongoing activity.


2.He will be encouraged to ask for a break by saying “I need time out” when he is overwhelmed by any activity.He will ask permission from teachers to have a break verbally before getting out of the class in 5 out of 10 times.This will help him prepare himself in joining the class when he is ready and not cause him more frustrations.


3.He will be taught to go to a place during time outs to calm himself down and go back to the classroom to join the rest of the class when he is ready.He will notify the teachers when he is ready to join them.


He will take the Assessment in the same allotted time as the rest of the class.He will have breaks as needed.The shadow teacher will make sure he gets a break before he distracts the whole class.He will ask for a break in 3 out of 5 attempts with prompting.


He will be on time for each class.He will be asked to come on time just like all the other students to make him use to the schedule of the class.He will arrive in the school 10 minutes before the set time 5 out of 10 times.


He will start tasks when asked. He will be prompted to start tasks given 6 in every 10 attempts with adult instruction.He will do tasks assigned without prompting in 5 out of 10 attempts.


He will make appropriate decisions during recess and at lunch hour. He will be encouraged to decide to eat fast,finish his food and read a favorite book of his choice or eat slowly and not be able to do anything more after eating.He will do this in 7 out of 10 attempts with prompting.After awhile he will make a choice on his own without adult instruction,and do this in 5 out of 10 attempts.


He will complete and hand in assignments when asked. He will be encouraged to finish assignments on time given.He will do assignments with adult supervision.He will do this 8 in every 10 times.He will do assigned tasks without adult prompting in 5 out of 10 attempts.He will be asked to return back to Teachers assigned works on time.He will handover assignments when done with adult instruction in 7 out of 10 times.He will give assignments on time in 5 out of 10 times without adult prompting.


He will raise his/her hand before speaking. He will be asked to raise his hand before talking.He will do this in 7 out of 10 times with adult instructions.Then he will raise his hands without adult prompting in 5 out of 10 times.He will be encouraged to contribute an idea or happening during Circle Time/Meeting.Raise hand before talking.


He will follow routines, instructions and directions promptly. He will be encouraged to follow routines by looking at the board for instructions and follow each one of them step by step.At first he will be prompted by the teachers to read whats written on the board and do the job.He will do this 7 out of 10 attempts.He will be prompted physically to make sure he accomplishes tasks given.He will do same tasks without prompting 5 out of 10 times.


He will use acceptable problem solving skills.He will be encouraged to answer questions given by the teachers and he will be given ample time to think and answer questions.


b.He will do some sequencing activities to help him


He will interact with peers in a positive manner. He will be encouraged to play within a group.He will be guided physically and verbally by an adult.he will do this 7 in every 10 attempts.He will join and participate to play in a group 5 in every 10 trials without adult instruction.


He will demonstrate respect for others and the property of others.He will be asked to say sorry when he hurts somebody whether accidental or intentional.He will do this 8 out of 10 times with adult instruction.He will do the same without adult supervision 5 in every 10 attempts.He will be encouraged to ask permission before getting anything that is not his. He will do this with adult instruction 7 in every 10 attempts.He will do the same without adult instruction 5 in every 10 attempts.


He will make positive contributions when called upon. He will be prompted to answer when somebody asks him a question with adult instruction/help 7 in every 10 attempts.he will be able to answer on his own wi9thout any help 5 in every 10 attempts.He will be given enough time until he is able to answer question thrown at him by teacher.



Strategies to get Positive Behavior


One of the greatest motivators to improve student behavior is to provide an incentive or reward for appropriate behaviors that occur over a defined period of time.


Become a helper to the custodian, librarian, another teacher or the office staff.


Become a class monitor for a specific area of need


Helping a younger student with a learning task for a specified period of time.


Earn points for a class video.


15 minutes of free choice activity.


Work with a friend.


Read a comic book.


Show or tell the class something you have or did.


Have lunch with your favorite person or the teacher.


Read a story to the principal or to another class.


Hand out supplies for a defined number of activities.


Receive a positive note for home.


Pick something from the prize box.


Pick something from the treat box. (Keep it healthy, crackers, animal cookies, fruit, juice boxes, popcorn, granola bars, marshmallows etc.


Earn tickets toward free time.


Free pencil, pen or eraser.


Free poster.


Free story for the whole class!(A strategy like this lets others help the student at risk stay on target.


Free homework pass.


Leader for the day.


Have work posted in the hall or near the office.


Enjoy a game with a friend.


Be the leader for the first activity.



Special considerations and accomodations needed in general education for the student to be involved and progress the general education curriculum.



Cognitive: Modified Curriculum and Materials


Behavior:Consistent Behavior Modification Plan


Motor:Sensory Motor Break


Stationary Bike


Vestibular Ball


Daily Routine: Adult Support,Peer Buddy


Communication: Visual Cues,Gestures,Simplified Commands,Physical Assistance


Social: Structured Opportunities to interact with peers


Pullout room

Thursday, April 12, 2007

True Life:I Have Autism/Story of 3 Teens with Autism


I received an email from our local Autism Organization and a part of this blog was the content of the mail.I researched and found this in the internet.Let me share this with you.This is about 3 Teens with Autism.

Craig and Dana are the producers for True Life: I Have Autism.
They had an amazing experience working with these young people over several months, and wanted to share their notes from their journey.

Check out their thoughts on these extraordinary young people and the exclusive extra footage from the show.

Craig, the Producer:

Before we started researching, I knew very little about autism. In fact, I don't think I'd ever known anyone with autism. All I knew was what I had seen in the media. When you only hear about people through the media, you get stereotypes and myths.

There are a lot of widely-held mistaken beliefs about people with autism.


Two of these myths are that people with autism are distant or not emotional, and they aren't social and can't have relationships. Our first few days of the shoot, Jeremy, Jonathan and Elijah blew those myths away. What we learned probably should've been obvious: people with autism come in the same varieties as "neuro-typical" people. Some are shy, while some are outgoing. But all people have emotions and need relationships.

It is not true that these CWA are not emotional or that they are distant.They just do not know how to express themselves which is one of their most difficult area to deal with.So even if they do not like something or if they feel bad,people close to them will be the only ones who will be able to understand how they feel.I will share some of the way they express themselves.

One student would ask me "Are you going to be there tomorrow?"When I said "Yes,I will be there to watch you."He said "Ayyyyyyyyyy!!!!"This is his way of saying he doesnt want me to be there.When I wasnt in the school he can get away with all his bad behaviors.Thats why he doesnt want me around.

This student when his classmates asked him who his crush is,he told them "You"his crush is the prettiest girl in the class.And she along with other girls asked him the question.

He would hold this girls hands whenever he got a chance.Sometimes he would pull her hands to make her sit beside him.I remind him not to pull hands because he is hurting the other person.He says "Sorry" when I tell him this.

When he is starting to play with his fingers I whisper in his ears,I say "stop that"..."you want your classmates to look at you?"He would answer with "No".Then I would say "Then stop playing with your fingers"."Sit on your hands".This helped him.He understood.When I first came in I noticed when somebody stares at him when he is playing up,he would say "What?".He was trying to ask.."Why are you looking at me".I told him because you are playing with your hands.Then I ask him "Look around,does any of your classmates do that?"He would say "No".Then I would say "Then stop doing it".This helped a lot.I do know it wont help others but with him it helps.He is intouch with his emotions so he knows.

Thankfully, I got over my stereotypes, and I was lucky to become friends with all three of these amazing guys.



Jonathan


From Craig, the Producer


Jon's really extroverted. He's funny and he knows he's funny. Sometimes he'd be off by himself, laughing and giggling, and I wouldn't really know what was amusing him. But most of the time, he'd let us in on the joke:



Jonathan: Segment 1


He loves rock - especially heavy metal. It's funny -- he's so sensitive to loud noises he has to wear sound-reducing headphones in public. But then he gets home and puts on a Killswitch Engage album and cranks it up. His room is covered in posters of his favorite bands.



Jonathan: Segment 2


Jon's obviously a very talented artist. But he's also an art lover. He's really into Picasso, Cezanne and Jackson Pollock. He loves to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan and study the masters' techniques. Then he tries to incorporate those techniques into his own art. But when he goes to the museum, he's so focused on the paintings that his dad has to remind him not to touch them.



Jonathan: Segment 3


About the only time when Jonathan isn't social is when he's drawing. He's so focused that he doesn't like to talk. He can do an entire drawing in less than ten minutes. When he's done, he just signs his initials and moves on to the next piece.






Jeremy

Jeremy had a chance to watch the show. Check out his thoughts on his experience.

From Dana, the Segment Producer

Before meeting Jeremy for the first time, I didn't know what to expect. I never imagined that a kid who couldn't speak would have so much to say. And I never imagined what an impact he would make on my life and work. Jeremy is an inspiration. What was most eye-opening for me was that, even though he deals with autism, the people who surround him insist that he experiences life as any other teenager would. His mom has the same expectations for him as she does for his sister, Rebecca. And believe me, Jeremy has exceeded those expectations.

The first time I met Jeremy's mom she explained to me that she didn't want Jeremy to be relegated to a menial job later in life, but hoped that he would feel he had the opportunities that any other teenager leaving high school would have. One important part of this lesson was teaching Jeremy the value of a dollar. Jeremy was looking for a way to interact with other students at school and was eager to earn and save money. He came up with an idea to sell roses at school during lunch break.

He travels every Friday morning to the local rose distributor, buys roses in bulk, then packages them and sells each individually to students at lunch. It's a great way for Jeremy to interact with the other students, as well as learn the basics of saving and spending money. We visited Jeremy at school the week before Valentine's Day to check out his business. He was a little overwhelmed by the crowds and noise, as it's a lot of stimulation for someone who's dealing with autism. He had to take frequent breaks, and found it difficult to stay focused, but always managed to make his way back to the stand.



Jeremy: Segment 1


Since Jeremy's business had been doing so well and he had been able to save a decent amount of money, he decided that he wanted to buy a dog. Not just any dog, but one specially trained to deal with people like Jeremy who have autism. Jeremy's dog, Handsome, has been trained by a professional to be a lead dog. He can guide Jeremy when crossing the street and can sense when something in the immediate environment is wrong. They are slowly easing Jeremy into his ownership. The dog visits each weekend and will be with Jeremy permanently next fall. Jeremy will have the option to take the dog to school with him as well.
I received an email from our local Autism Organization and a part of this blog was the content of the mail.I researched and found this in the internet.Let me share this with you.This is about 3 Teens with Autism.

Craig and Dana are the producers for True Life: I Have Autism. They had an amazing experience working with these young people over several months, and wanted to share their notes from their journey.

Check out their thoughts on these extraordinary young people and the exclusive extra footage from the show
.

Craig, the Producer:

Before we started researching, I knew very little about autism. In fact, I don't think I'd ever known anyone with autism. All I knew was what I had seen in the media. When you only hear about people through the media, you get stereotypes and myths.

There are a lot of widely-held mistaken beliefs about people with autism.

Two of these myths are that people with autism are distant or not emotional, and they aren't social and can't have relationships. Our first few days of the shoot, Jeremy, Jonathan and Elijah blew those myths away. What we learned probably should've been obvious: people with autism come in the same varieties as "neuro-typical" people. Some are shy, while some are outgoing. But all people have emotions and need relationships.

It is not true that these CWA are not emotional or that they are distant.They just do not know how to express themselves which is one of their most difficult area to deal with.So even if they do not like something or if they feel bad,people close to them will be the only ones who will be able to understand how they feel.I will share some of the way they express themselves.

One student would ask me "Are you going to be there tomorrow?"When I said "Yes,I will be there to watch you."He said "Ayyyyyyyyyy!!!!"This is his way of saying he doesnt want me to be there.When I wasnt in the school he can get away with all his bad behaviors.Thats why he doesnt want me around.

This student when his classmates asked him who his crush is,he told them "You"his crush is the prettiest girl in the class.And she along with other girls asked him the question.

He would hold this girls hands whenever he got a chance.Sometimes he would pull her hands to make her sit beside him.I remind him not to pull hands because he is hurting the other person.He says "Sorry" when I tell him this.

When he is starting to play with his fingers I whisper in his ears,I say "stop that"..."you want your classmates to look at you?"He would answer with "No".Then I would say "Then stop playing with your fingers"."Sit on your hands".This helped him.He understood.When I first came in I noticed when somebody stares at him when he is playing up,he would say "What?".He was trying to ask.."Why are you looking at me".I told him because you are playing with your hands.Then I ask him "Look around,does any of your classmates do that?"He would say "No".Then I would say "Then stop doing it".This helped a lot.I do know it wont help others but with him it helps.He is intouch with his emotions so he knows.

Thankfully, I got over my stereotypes, and I was lucky to become friends with all three of these amazing guys.

Jonathan


From Craig, the Producer

Jon's really extroverted. He's funny and he knows he's funny. Sometimes he'd be off by himself, laughing and giggling, and I wouldn't really know what was amusing him. But most of the time, he'd let us in on the joke:

Jonathan: Segment 1


He loves rock - especially heavy metal. It's funny -- he's so sensitive to loud noises he has to wear sound-reducing headphones in public. But then he gets home and puts on a Killswitch Engage album and cranks it up. His room is covered in posters of his favorite bands:

Jonathan: Segment 2


Jon's obviously a very talented artist. But he's also an art lover. He's really into Picasso, Cezanne and Jackson Pollock. He loves to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan and study the masters' techniques. Then he tries to incorporate those techniques into his own art. But when he goes to the museum, he's so focused on the paintings that his dad has to remind him not to touch them.

Jonathan: Segment 3


About the only time when Jonathan isn't social is when he's drawing. He's so focused that he doesn't like to talk. He can do an entire drawing in less than ten minutes. When he's done, he just signs his initials and moves on to the next piece.

Jonathan: Segment 4




Jeremy

Jeremy had a chance to watch the show. Check out his thoughts on his experience.

From Dana, the Segment Producer

Before meeting Jeremy for the first time, I didn't know what to expect. I never imagined that a kid who couldn't speak would have so much to say. And I never imagined what an impact he would make on my life and work. Jeremy is an inspiration. What was most eye-opening for me was that, even though he deals with autism, the people who surround him insist that he experiences life as any other teenager would. His mom has the same expectations for him as she does for his sister, Rebecca. And believe me, Jeremy has exceeded those expectations.

The first time I met Jeremy's mom she explained to me that she didn't want Jeremy to be relegated to a menial job later in life, but hoped that he would feel he had the opportunities that any other teenager leaving high school would have. One important part of this lesson was teaching Jeremy the value of a dollar. Jeremy was looking for a way to interact with other students at school and was eager to earn and save money. He came up with an idea to sell roses at school during lunch break.

He travels every Friday morning to the local rose distributor, buys roses in bulk, then packages them and sells each individually to students at lunch. It's a great way for Jeremy to interact with the other students, as well as learn the basics of saving and spending money. We visited Jeremy at school the week before Valentine's Day to check out his business. He was a little overwhelmed by the crowds and noise, as it's a lot of stimulation for someone who's dealing with autism. He had to take frequent breaks, and found it difficult to stay focused, but always managed to make his way back to the stand.

Jeremy: Segment 1


Since Jeremy's business had been doing so well and he had been able to save a decent amount of money, he decided that he wanted to buy a dog. Not just any dog, but one specially trained to deal with people like Jeremy who have autism. Jeremy's dog, Handsome, has been trained by a professional to be a lead dog. He can guide Jeremy when crossing the street and can sense when something in the immediate environment is wrong. They are slowly easing Jeremy into his ownership. The dog visits each weekend and will be with Jeremy permanently next fall. Jeremy will have the option to take the dog to school with him as well.

The dog will attract attention, therefore allowing Jeremy the chance to interact with even more people his own age. Right before his birthday party, Jeremy took Handsome to the local San Diego beach, "Dog Beach", designated specifically for dogs and their owners.

Jeremy: Segment 2


Over the course of the past six months, while filming Jeremy, he had never addressed me directly. I knew he was aware of our presence; the cameras, the microphones and the lights. He had no problem telling us when he needed a break or wanted some alone time or privacy. Then, on the final day of shooting, we had to say our goodbyes to Jeremy. Not knowing when we'd see him again, we wanted Jeremy to know that his story was going to make a real difference, touch lives and shed new light to issues of autism.

It turned out to be a bit awkward and rushed, considering Jeremy was in the middle of English class at the time. It was not the ideal situation or how I'd imagined an appropriate goodbye would be. As we were leaving, Jeremy reached out for the Lightwriter. Without hesitation, he began to type…and what he had to say to our crew will never be forgotten. He wrote, "You are my voice to the world. Thank you for all you are doing."

Jeremy: Segment 3



Elijah

Elijah had a chance to watch the show. Check out his thoughts on his experience.

From Craig, the Producer

The best thing about following Elijah is that he's just as funny in everyday situations as he is on stage. His mom says that when he was a little kid, he couldn't converse like other kids his age, so he'd just repeat funny lines from movies that often didn't make sense to anyone but Elijah. Today, you can still see traces of the way he used to communicate, and I'm sure some people still find his jokes weird. But I think they're hilarious.

Elijah: Segment 1


Elijah gets a little help on his comedy routines from his mom and other funny people in his life. But for the most part, all the jokes are his. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to put his entire act into our show, but here's one complete routine:

Elijah: Segment 2


People on the autism spectrum sometimes struggle with social cues that most of us take for granted. For instance, it can sometimes be hard for a person on the spectrum to catch sarcasm or irony, so they often take what you're saying literally even if you're being facetious. You can imagine what that means for Elijah when he's around comedians. Once when we were at the Las Vegas Comedy Festival, Elijah met Debra Wilson from MADtv. Debra said hello and then went into a character, pretending she was mad at Elijah for letting me film her. It was clear to everyone but Elijah that Debra was kidding, and Elijah got scared that he'd upset someone he admired. Eventually, though, other comedians explained the joke to Elijah, and he did something really cool - instead of being embarrassed, he proudly took it as a free lesson in comedy.

Elijah: Segment 3


When Elijah worked with professional comedians at the Las Vegas Comedy Festival, he was happy to get their input, but he was very concerned about appearing like he was stealing other comedians' jokes. In his final routine, he used little bits and premises from the professionals, but the end result was all Elijah.

Elijah: Segment 4


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dana, the Segment Producer:

I know for many people it can be difficult or challenging at times to reach out or connect with those who we see as being different or separate from us and our lives. Sometimes we wonder what's going on inside these people, what they're thinking, what they're feeling, what they're dreams are.

If I can shed any light, from my personal experiences with Jeremy, Jonathan and Elijah, it would be that when you see or meet people on the autism spectrum, don't be afraid to ask, introduce, explore, reach out, question and wonder. They've shown me that it's those people you sit next to in class but never speak to; or pass in your neighborhood but never meet; or who you see on television and want to know more about, who have so much to offer…even if they can

Jeremy's thoughts on the show

This was a good show. I thought it really evenly showed my universal problem of communication. The video very nicely portrayed my life because my life keeps me from making friends. The show was good because it showed I really understand even if I look like I am not paying attention. I have more going on inside than it looks like.

Please know I am getting many emails from people wanting to communicate with me. I am happy I can now answer.

I really like the experience of being filmed. TV is like a kaleidescope through which we can visit the world of others.

Elijah's Thoughts on the Show

When I was filmed I forgot the camera crew was there most of the time. When I saw myself it felt strange but it also brought back memories of when I was in Vegas. There was a positive reaction from friends, family, acquaintances and even people I didn’t/don’t know. An interesting thing that happened from the show has been that people I don’t know have started contacting me. I know that a lot of footage needed to be edited in the show, but other than that everything seemed to be explained accurately. Overall, I think it was a good experience for me.



The dog will attract attention, therefore allowing Jeremy the chance to interact with even more people his own age. Right before his birthday party, Jeremy took Handsome to the local San Diego beach, "Dog Beach", designated specifically for dogs and their owners.

Jeremy: Segment 2


Over the course of the past six months, while filming Jeremy, he had never addressed me directly. I knew he was aware of our presence; the cameras, the microphones and the lights. He had no problem telling us when he needed a break or wanted some alone time or privacy. Then, on the final day of shooting, we had to say our goodbyes to Jeremy. Not knowing when we'd see him again, we wanted Jeremy to know that his story was going to make a real difference, touch lives and shed new light to issues of autism.

It turned out to be a bit awkward and rushed, considering Jeremy was in the middle of English class at the time. It was not the ideal situation or how I'd imagined an appropriate goodbye would be. As we were leaving, Jeremy reached out for the Lightwriter. Without hesitation, he began to type…and what he had to say to our crew will never be forgotten. He wrote, "You are my voice to the world. Thank you for all you are doing."

Jeremy: Segment 3




Elijah

Elijah had a chance to watch the show. Check out his thoughts on his experience.

From Craig, the Producer

The best thing about following Elijah is that he's just as funny in everyday situations as he is on stage. His mom says that when he was a little kid, he couldn't converse like other kids his age, so he'd just repeat funny lines from movies that often didn't make sense to anyone but Elijah. Today, you can still see traces of the way he used to communicate, and I'm sure some people still find his jokes weird. But I think they're hilarious.

Elijah: Segment 1


Elijah gets a little help on his comedy routines from his mom and other funny people in his life. But for the most part, all the jokes are his. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to put his entire act into our show, but here's one complete routine:

Elijah: Segment 2

People on the autism spectrum sometimes struggle with social cues that most of us take for granted. For instance, it can sometimes be hard for a person on the spectrum to catch sarcasm or irony, so they often take what you're saying literally even if you're being facetious. You can imagine what that means for Elijah when he's around comedians. Once when we were at the Las Vegas Comedy Festival, Elijah met Debra Wilson from MADtv. Debra said hello and then went into a character, pretending she was mad at Elijah for letting me film her. It was clear to everyone but Elijah that Debra was kidding, and Elijah got scared that he'd upset someone he admired. Eventually, though, other comedians explained the joke to Elijah, and he did something really cool - instead of being embarrassed, he proudly took it as a free lesson in comedy.

Elijah: Segment 3

When Elijah worked with professional comedians at the Las Vegas Comedy Festival, he was happy to get their input, but he was very concerned about appearing like he was stealing other comedians' jokes. In his final routine, he used little bits and premises from the professionals, but the end result was all Elijah.

Dana, the Segment Producer:

I know for many people it can be difficult or challenging at times to reach out or connect with those who we see as being different or separate from us and our lives. Sometimes we wonder what's going on inside these people, what they're thinking, what they're feeling, what they're dreams are.

If I can shed any light, from my personal experiences with Jeremy, Jonathan and Elijah, it would be that when you see or meet people on the autism spectrum, don't be afraid to ask, introduce, explore, reach out, question and wonder. They've shown me that it's those people you sit next to in class but never speak to; or pass in your neighborhood but never meet; or who you see on television and want to know more about, who have so much to offer…even if they can

Jeremy's thoughts on the show

This was a good show. I thought it really evenly showed my universal problem of communication. The video very nicely portrayed my life because my life keeps me from making friends. The show was good because it showed I really understand even if I look like I am not paying attention. I have more going on inside than it looks like.

Please know I am getting many emails from people wanting to communicate with me. I am happy I can now answer.

I really like the experience of being filmed. TV is like a kaleidescope through which we can visit the world of others.

Elijah's Thoughts on the Show

When I was filmed I forgot the camera crew was there most of the time. When I saw myself it felt strange but it also brought back memories of when I was in Vegas. There was a positive reaction from friends, family, acquaintances and even people I didn’t/don’t know. An interesting thing that happened from the show has been that people I don’t know have started contacting me. I know that a lot of footage needed to be edited in the show, but other than that everything seemed to be explained accurately. Overall, I think it was a good experience for me.