Home » Autism and belief: Part II

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Autism and belief: Part II — 13 Comments

  1. I found a review of The Reason I Jump by perhaps the most famous person with autism, Temple Grandin. She doesn’t seem on board with “facilitated communication” and liked the book because she sees it as a product of an individual who has the ability to communicate independently:

    When I received a review copy of The Reason I Jump from the publisher, I set this highly insightful book aside because both the foreword and the cover letter from the editor failed to provide a sufficient description of Naoki Higashida’s ability to communicate fully and independently. When I was later asked to review this book, I was confident that Naoki, a 13-year-old nonverbal child with autism, was not using the controversial method of facilitated communication, in which a person supports the wrist of the nonverbal person with autism. When this method is used, the facilitator is often the true author. Naoki’s book belongs to the other class of writings: those that come from nonverbal individuals with autism who can communicate fully independently with no wrist support.

    She goes on to say that what Naoki has is “a kind of ‘locked-in’ syndrome, whereby an intelligent mind is trapped inside a body that has difficulty controlling movements. Tremendous effort is required to pay attention.”

    Here she talks more about that inability to control movement:

    The title of Naoki’s book is very appropriate. He explains why he needs movement in order to determine where his body is located in space: “The reason is that imitating movement is difficult for people with autism because we don’t know our own body parts well.” Later, he writes, “When I am jumping, I can feel my body parts really well.” He goes on to write, “When I am not moving, it feels like my soul is detaching from my body.” Tito’s book has similar descriptions of a thinking self that is separate from the actions of his body. Movements such as spinning provide calm and bliss. Naoki writes, “Just watching spinning things fills me with everlasting bliss.” He also explains how flicking his fingers in front of his eyes provides light in a pleasant, filtered manner. I can relate to this. When I was little, I spun things and dribbled sand through my hands. It was like taking a drug. If my teachers and mother had let me spin things all day, I never would have developed because my brain would have been shut off from the world. To calm down I was allowed to spin things for an hour after lunch, but at other times spinning was not allowed. A child with more severe sensory issues than mine may need more rest periods in between teaching periods.

    The full review is here.

  2. The primary difference between high and low functioning is how they were trained mentally and physically as children.

    If a person has normal motor and language skills, they generally can unlock their own skills and problems, breaking past the block.

    If they lack normal motor and language skills, then something must supplement or else their brain will atrophy due to lack of use. And by lack of use, I don’t mean comatose muscle degeneration, but the kind of atrophy that results from being in a sensory deprivation chamber for a decade or two, while conscious.

  3. By the time someone has suffered that length of exile and deprivation, their minds will have shattered, gone catatonic, and regressed to a very non functional level.

    At that point, trying to tease them out by using normal or special training is meaningless. The brain has been damaged to the point where it is now withdrawn.

  4. As for environmentalism.

    People with autism, for some reason, don’t understand human deception and what human nature is. Well, if they did, they would probably adjust themselves in better ways first.

    So if they hear stuff about environmentalism, which is present in Japan and is independent of the PC movement in the West, it’s not like they can tell the difference between truth and false universes.

    Pick any author in the West that is supposed to be educated and ask them about Global Warming. See the difference?

  5. I was always interested to hear Temple Grandin when she was interviewed on NPR. She had such an odd and interesting take on things, especially animal behavior, yet by the skin of her teeth she was able to function in the human world.

    There was a book … an essay? that I read so long ago that I really can’t remember much of the particulars – basically, a young couple’s youngest daughter was what we now recognize as autistic and at the age of three or four (maybe – it’s been a very long time) and displayed a whole spectrum of phobias and odd behavior. One of them was of walking on sand … which came up all of a sudden. A family outing to the beach, or something? And her father was just at the end of his tether. He picked her up and dumped her on the sand. Several times … and that was a kind of break-through. That particular act broke through whatever sensory barrier the daughter experienced. They were able to reach their daughter, and she was able to reach to them. She still needed rather intensive schooling, but developed after that in a more normal way. Anyone else remember this account?

  6. I am skeptical of facilitated communication. However, I do not discount the possibility of some sort of improvement of the “autistic” condition, such as Sgt. Mom describes. Rupert Isaacson’s The Horse Boy: A Memoir of Healing recounts one such improvement, a combination of horses and Mongolian shamans. The author consulted Temple Grandin before going to Mongolia. Her advice- try the trip to Mongolia- it’s better than doing nothing.

    Some 7 years have passed since Isaacson, his wife and autistic child made the healing trip to Mongolia. It would be interesting to check up and see how things are going now.

    Incidentally, when I mentioned this book to my Montana horse-owning cousin and her husband, they were not surprised at hearing the response of an autistic child to horses. They had seen the same when a special ed teacher brought some of her charges over to their acreage.

  7. Ann:

    I disagree with Grandin that this is not facilitated communication. It’s not fully facilitated communication, it is partially facilitated communication. The facilitation is not so much in the typing itself (although I believe the mother is cuing him somewhat there, too) as in the transcribing and translation and rephrasing/rewriting.

    I wonder whether Grandin actually watched the video.

  8. neo-neocon,

    Regarding facilitated communication, I share your skepticism. However, I think much or most of it is done with good intentions by well intentioned people. People subconsciously assisting in a fraud for altruistic reasons. However, medical professionals need to address this honestly and accurately.

    My wife is a medical professional and developmentally delayed infants have been her specialty for years. She’s seen a lot of autism and she does think it’s becoming more prevalent. Her theory is twofold: more women having children late in life and a society and medical profession more attuned to finding cases on the “more normal” end of the spectrum.

    She also works with kids and their parents, and most all of the parents are susceptible to anything that might help their child. It’s interesting; it seem that many of the fathers try to deny it, or try methods like the “throwing on sand” technique written in a prior comment whereas the mothers seem motivated to finding techniques, exercises, foods, medicines… that will result in improvements. Many couples divorce.

    She is a skeptic and a good, critical thinker, but she is trained in Sensory Integration techniques and they really can help in many instances. Things like brushing, wrapping in blankets, music, swinging (there are even charges that are like cocoons, suspended from ropes that envelop the child as he swings… As in the Temple Grandin excerpt someone provided, overstimulating some of their senses seems to help them focus or tune the real world in.

  9. Lots of mistakes in the above (I published prior to proofing), but “charges” = “chairs” is probably the most egregious. “(there are even chairs that are like cocoons…”

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