A group on my floor at work showed the short TEDx talk Dear Society…signed Autism… recently. You should watch it – it’s only eight minutes long – but the bottom line is that people like to be seen as people, not symptoms.
We had a lively conversation about the condition. I don’t think I’m an expert on the subject, but I’m extremely interested in it, in part because I have a relative on the spectrum.
So I tend to seek out media portrayals such as the current television show The Good Doctor (ABC), the now-completed Parenthood (NBC), the movie Life, Animated, and the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the latter of which attempted to have the audience experience what it might feel like to be in the head of someone with autism.
Without any effort, I’ve come across several stories on the topic this month. Most fascinating to me is one about the gut microbiomes, which “recent research suggests… also affect brain communication and neurological health.”
Other pieces: A Mother Of A Son With Autism Thanks A Stranger Who Helped: ‘Nobody Does What You Do’ and How a simple act of kindness transformed a boy’s birthday.
Plus Samantha Bee take on the anti-vaxxers, with two principles. “Vaccines do not cause autism” and “Don’t treat autistic people like their existence is worse than a pandemic.”
The (so-far exaggerated) reference is to measles, which has had more cases in the US in 2019 SO FAR than every year since its “eradication” in 2000. The plurality, if not the majority, of the cases are in New York State, in the three downstate counties of Rockland, Westchester and Kings (Brooklyn).
The only time I’d written about autism in this blog, other than reviews, wasn’t even about the condition. Rather it was a reference to whether a particular charity was on the up-and-up, and that was back in 2008!
Still, two different entities found that old article and recommended to me a bunch of autism-related links. I decided to put them all in a post HERE. And here’s a CDC article: Concerned About Your Child’s Development?
Image by Oberholster Venita from Pixabay