What is Autistic Spectrum Disorder?
Unlike instantly recognizable physical and learning disabilities such as Downs Syndrome for example, which immediately provokes a sympathetic reaction, autistic children/adults look "NORMAL" (and we use the term "normal" very loosely here!).
The problem is that their disability often prevents them from acting "NORMAL". Their behaviour can provoke very negative reactions, and their parents are often criticized!
It is this sort of attitude/reaction which we are attempting to change through this website.Simply different
To try to explain in layman's terms, their brains are actually built differently, or there is a short circuit in the electrical pathways their brains use to take in information and process it.
The world can get very confusing because they are taking in information and processing it differently from you.
Basically, their brains and the pathways to them do not work the same as yours.
The sort of information to the brain we are talking about here is sights, sounds and smells - all the things that our brains are bombarded with on a daily basis
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Children and adults with ASD do not get the same balanced information from the world that you do.
Their eyes and ears may be focused on the same things yours are, but once the information gets onto the pathways to their brain, it can go off in wrong directions - get changed, faded, heightened, scrambled or confused.
So, the information may not get to their brain in the same condition as it arrives at yours!
For example, you might not realize how fast the real world moves for the person with autism -people move around quickly, change the expressions on their face quickly, wave their hands around, change the tone of their voice and point to things all the time.
Places like the schoolroom or the supermarket are busy and distracting - everyone talking at the same time, pushing, yelling, the lights are bright, etc. This is all information that has to be processed, and for the autistic person it can be extremely overwhelming - as they try to focus on all of it.
Their brains become overloaded with sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches - their brains simply aren't built to process information that fast or to pick out what is important and what is not.
What's important to them is often not what is important to you. With the right support and help they can, over time, learn ways of coping, but it takes time and it will always be difficult for them. It is not something that comes naturally to them; they have to be taught.
Could you imagine having to be taught how to cope with the simplest of things?
As you can imagine this can be very distressing and confusing, and it is the stress and anxiety that everyday situations produce which can result in extremely challenging behaviour, anything from tantrums and aggression, to complete shutdown/withdrawal - the only way they know how to react to the stress that they are under!
People with autism suffer confusion, frustration, isolation and desperation on a daily basis trying to cope with a world they do not understand!
Think before you judge
What we would like to say is that, yes, our children are different, but they are still special, unique individuals with a lot to offer given love, care, patience and understanding. There is just one of them - like there is just one of you!
They may not understand how to talk to other people, or how to act the right way at the right time, or how to understand feelings, or how to sort out all the sights, sounds and smells in the world; but, they have as much right to acceptance as anyone else!
So, if you see someone who is different with their parents or friends, and they are doing things which you do not understand, please react positively, with as much patience and understanding as you are able to give, as opposed to reacting negatively and judgementally.
Encourage your children, if you have any, to accept differences in others as opposed to bullying and ridiculing. Even better, encourage them to make friends, as what people with autism need the most is friends!
Please try and understand their world, because they are trying very hard to understand yours!
Thank you for your time.