Donna Williams - On Australian TV for the first time.
Chris and I were on Australian TV last night on the SBS program Insight.
The program was called ‘Understanding Autism‘.
http://news.sbs.com.au/insight/
I’ve been on US TV, UK TV, Norwegian TV, German TV, Japanese TV, but it was the first time I’d bee on Australian TV.
Chris looked lovely on telly. I was so excited to see him on there.
He’s never been on TV and its wild as he’s a ‘real life’ guy not a TV person and there he was on the TV AND sitting next to me on the sofa!!!! Crazy world.
We got a chance to let people know about www.auties.org - the first international self employment site for people on the autistic spectrum which is now starting to form dinner clubs and social groups - a real buzz to start something that’s essentially ‘community action’.
… Donna Williams
autistic author of 9 published books
artist, author, screenwriter.
http://www.donnawilliams.net
I watched the program last night and after reading Nobody Nowhere years ago I was surprised to see Donna on tv. Congrats to Donna for all her achievements. I will be referring my clients to your sites particularily auties.org as ther is a huge need for stuff like this.
I was surprised too.
We knew we were in the audience but didn’t find out till we got there that we’d be up on the stage.
Someone probably told me but the meaning deafness thing means I say ‘yes’ a lot without fully understanding. Same happens with reading.
Jennie Brockie was nice and made us feel welcome and human.
Some of that ‘getting settled’ stuff was trimmed out in the editing.
Hope to see some of your people join us at http://www.auties.org
glad you’ve found us.
You do know there’s four books in the autobiographical series… the second was Somebody Somewhere, the third was Like Colour To The Blind and the fourth was Everyday Heaven. In all I’ve got 9 published books (published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers). I’m now writing films
bye for now…
Donna Williams *)
http://www.donnawilliams.net
My 6 year old son is the most gorgeous autie I’ve ever met. I’m his mother so of course I’m being completly biased.
I just wanted to write and let you know that I was so pleased they put you on to liven the show up a bit. It’s not all doom and gloom.
I feel blessed to have such a special child AND I’d be the proudest mother on earth if he grows up to be anything like you!!
p.s he’s a naughty little autie too
Thanks Valeria,
that’s a very nice letter. Us naughty auties are quite spirited. We’re motivated alright but impulse control is usually the challenge of us wild ones. That can work well in arts I think and the arts world seems to cope reasonably with adapting to all kinds of ‘odd’ folk
Its a tough road for most auties but being hyper-normal (exagerated versions of all kinds of ‘normalities’) has its beauty as much as its pot-holes. It took a lot of patches to hold me together - diet, supplements, cranio, patterning, tinted lenses, strategies for receptive language, lots of cognitive-behavioural stuff for anxiety and compulsive challenges, a tiny amount of medication, a style of learning and interaction that fits my strengths and a circle of autie friendly people to remind me the world is good. We all have to find what works for each of us. You sound a bubble of enthusiasm so you’ll probably navigate the pot-holes with your son.
All the best Ms Positive.
http://www.donnawilliams.net
Hello Donna,
I Have a beautiful 7yr old son with aspergers. He is so bright and a constant source of delight to me. I watched you on Insight the other night, you are an inspiration to all parents of children with an ASD. You gave me hope that my lovely boy will have a future in what ever he wants to do. People like you, who show the world how wonderful auties can be are just wonderful!! Congratulations Donna you are a beautiful lady and you gave my hope for my son Robert’s future.
Warm regards, Robyn.
Hi Robyn,
thanks for dropping by. We’re creating quite a community. By the time Robert is in his teens there should be autism-friendly networks for him to find a place in or further create. I run a writer’s group, a social morning and have just started a group to learn and practice Auslan signing. Chris and I started the first dinner club, we now are part of two of them.
Robert is welcome to join http://www.auties.org when he wants to. We have a girl on there listing her products, she’s only 11. If he has no products or skills to list, he can start a skills group or dinner club. In any case all the best to you and Robert.
Warmly,
Thank you so much Donna, I will show Robert your blog tomorrow morning and if he wants to I will sign him up to http://www.auties.org, he loves music, especially classical music. He is very good with numbers and is only in grade 1 but is doing grade 3 and 4 level schooling. I am so proud to be his mum. I hope he will come on to your site and write to you one day soon. Thanks again Donna, Regards Robyn.
I’m not a very mathematical autie, but I knew a boy who was 7 when I met him and he was amazing with maths. I have to see the real objects, be able to touch them. I’m intuitive with music though. Didn’t do well at it at school though because I couldn’t show them (or me) what I could do. I was pretty scared to discover intuitive abilities (music, art, sculpture, typing) as having abilities means one has a reason to express oneself in the external world - that’s quite a commitment if one’s not sure one wants to exist yet… but I chose a side and I’m glad I exist and creativity is my big buzz at present. I do love pattern and symetry. I think that’s an intuitive maths without numbers.
Hi Donna,
I too was not very mathematical at school. Maths for me had to include a visual element rather than verbal element. At one point 5+3 was easier for me to solve than “Mr Smith grew five sunflowers for last year’s agricultural show. He will grow another three for this year’s show. How many will he have grown by the end of this year?” This was because of the additional information load, and as such, the meaning fell out.
There was another instance I had with “triangle numbers”, numbers which made a triangular pattern (1, 3, 6, 10, 15…). My favourite area of maths was shape, space and symmetry. I found money calculations easy, because it was easy for me to visualise the coinage used.
Stuart.
Hi Donna and Stuart,
That is very interesting, what you both have said about maths. My son Robert is very good at adding large numbers together or subracting large numbers. When it comes to small single numbers, 3+5=8 for example he can sometimes find this harder. I have asked him if he can tell me why and he told me he likes big lots of numbers because they are easier to look at. Donna, I also played my son some of your music and he loves it so I will be buying one of your cds for him very soon. He loves music and has told me certain music cools his head down, yours is one that does this for him. Thanks again I am finding by reading the messages here it is helping me to understand a lot more about my son and how things are for him and by understanding I can become a better and more aware mother to him. Warm regards, Robyn
I’m just terrible with math (I have AS) - if you look at my transcripts from college that is the only thing I have bad grades in . . . I’m ok at statistics because I can see something in my head that it goes with - it goes with some data - but algebra - it just hurts my head to even think about it - I can get the first part of an equation and then do it over and over, but when I go to do the second part I forget the first part and if ther is another part I forget the first two . . .
This is really frustrating because I want to get a teaching certificate and I can’t pass algebra so I can’t get a teaching certificate . . .
totally with you there Fleur… some mathematical auties are awesome. I’m very mono with the mathematics thing, totally kinesthetic… if I can have objects to represent my maths, I can hold it, but I’m not the one who can go off and do that stuff in my head. I think that’s for picture thinkers, not kinesthetic thinkers like me. I can’t even imagine how people can do complex maths in their heads!
Like you, I really want to scream when expected to hold more than two concepts mentally… the idea of a third or juggling relationships between numbers up there… I feel like, nope, sorry, I’m a Martian, you’re looking for a genius human, try next door…
I did remedial maths in secondary and again in tertiary level. I passed primary teaching because I needed to teach hands on maths via objects and could do it! I’m a great translator of the intellectual into the tangible. As for ‘my head hurts’, I’m still trying not to squeal or run when expected to do mental maths of any complexity without tools.
Fact is we ALL come in all shapes and forms, auties and non-auties and everyone in between too.
I am rather in awe of mathematic auties though. Maths can be a good employment field for some… but wow, don’t put a mono-tracked kinesthetic dyslexic with minimal sequencing and rote learning in charge of anything mathematically important unless you want something more artistic than practical done with them numbers
Hi Donna! My name is Christine and I am writing from Kingston, NY, USA. I am reading your blog and loving what you have to say. My 9-year-old son Alex is an autie. He has the best blue eyes and sweetest smile (of course I’m biased). Alex is also wild and impulsive. I have had to overcome my intense fear of heights to get him off the roof of our home recently, and we installed eye-latch locks on all our bedroom doors. So far, so good. I read an article you wrote in Autism Today about childhood bipolar. I think this describes a LOT of Alex’s behaviour! He laughs at odd times, is wildly impulsive, seems to fear toileting, and much more. May I use your article to talk to his services coordinator at school, as well as our family doctor? I think some re-evaluation is in order for Alex. Any thoughts?
Hi Christine,
if Alex has Hypomania (low level bipolar) or Rapid Cycling Bipolar (full fluctuations several times a day, week or month) then looking at low salicylate diet, low sugar and omega 3s 2000mg would be good trials to run by your naturopath before looking at mood levellers. I was ALWAYS hypomanic but have had severe ‘mood fits’ to acute manic and depressive extremes since age 3. Other folks may just be hypomanic (my default state) but long term that can be a big challenge for impulse control and learning especially combined with autism. Sure, feel free to share the info, I also wrote a chapter on co-occuring mood disorders in people with autism in the book The Jumbled Jigsaw. That may also be worth taking along as many docs don’t know bipolar can occur from 18 months old and also that in children its usually rapid cycling. Many docs think of bipolar in standard terms - a few manic episodes a year and generalised depression and occuring in teens and adults. Can say though, bipolar sure does drive ARTism (if it don’t kill ya first
Hi Donna! Thank you! Even though it drives us mad at times, Alex’s late nights seem to be when he’s most creative. His fascination is spirals..they’re great as long as they stay on the paper
Alex likes to try to redecorate the walls. The rapid cycling bipolar seems to be making the most sense with Alex. His moods are like a roller coaster.
Christine
and the spirals form frames, and the spirals sprout and become vines, and the spirals form lizards and the spirals….
Visit my art on http://www.donnawilliams.net and find my own spirals… works like Air, the tree in Rescue, the background in The Therapist……
I began drawing spirals when I was about 10.
Hi,
Do you have any TV segments that are available online or that you can email?
Hi Pel,
Jam Jar is available as far as I know, from Fresh Film, UK. Try this site:
http://www.freshfilm.co.uk
as for online, no, not yet.
oh, there are DVDs which my friend Jeanette Purkis helped me produce.
Those are purchasable online at hhtp://www.donnawilliams.net
good luck.
I’ve been considering having my kid try Irlen or BPI lenses. While we’ll try them regardless of the following, I’m confused about how they have helped you with any autism symptoms. Please, what have the lenses permitted you to do that you couldn’t do before? I’m not talking about visual perception symptoms … I’m talking about the features of autism: communication (verbal, non verbal), social interaction, behavior. I see that you encounter improvement with your visual perception symptoms but do these have any effect at all on the main features of autism?
Hi Gerry,
if you read The Jumbled Jigsaw
you’ll find I don’t believe there is any ONE thing called autism
that its essentially the developmental impact of a combined range of underlying conditions, a kind of ‘fruit salad’ and if we identify each piece, we can reduce the challenges associated with that piece which then has some reduction in exacerbating the impact of the other remaining pieces on the whole.
It’s a holistic model, perhaps you’re not used to that given much of the autism INDUSTRY promotes the idea there is one condition and hence one MARKETABLE ‘cure’, ‘treatment’, ‘therapy’, ‘approach’.
Even the culturalist movement promotes the ideal there is a single condition called an ‘autism spectrum condition’.
Anyway, trust me to differ
so how does reducing visual perceptual challenges impact on anything else in the fruit salad?
lets say a fruit salad has lemons in it and one kids lemon content is a rating 5, another kids its only a rating 1 and another its a zero and another its an 8 in terms of the exacerbating impact on the combined whole of the ‘fruit salad’ factor.
clearly addressing the lemons is going to have a far greater impact for the kid with the 5 or 10 rating than the one with the 1 and no impact at all for the kid for whom lemons don’t figure in their fruit salad at all (the zero kid).
so, for me, visual perceptual disorders were a pretty biggie in my fruit salad. I had many things in that fruit salad (I write of this extensively in The Jumbeld Jigsaw) and some were 5s, some were 8s, some were only 3s and then there’s some things in the fruit salads of other folks diagnosed with autism that are zeros in mine and vice versa.
So visual perceptual stuff was about a 5 for me. It CONTRIBUTED to social anxiety, information overload, involuntary self protection responses, bonding issues, reduced receptive language processing and exacerbated impulse control disorders (tourette’s tics and OCD).
Removing much of the visual perceptual challenges DIDN’T completely remove any of these OTHER things, but it reduced some of the added information processing drain, freeing up what was left, and if reduced general stress and anxiety load.
So beyond the obvious of better reading, not distressed by faces, movement or overhead light so much, more open to physical contact now I could actually see people as a whole, feeling safer with new environments which weren’t like mosaics so much…
yes, I was still pretty ‘autie’ and the ways I addressed the FAR BROADER variety of challenges in MY fruit salad is addressed in the 10 published books I’ve written so its important never to see any ONE thing that helped ME as applying to ALL my progress nor applying it to all people with a shared diagnosis who may or may not have that particular challenge in their fruit salad.
For your info, in Autism; An Inside Out Approach and in The Jumbled Jigsaw I gave many examples of SIMILAR looking behaviors which very different underlying causes. So its important to consider that two people can look like they share an issue, yet the underlying issues are actually quite different.
http://www.donnawilliams.net
I’ve always wondered what kids mean when they faces are “distressing” “scary” etcetra, like your mention of being distressed by faces. I’ve always wondered what this experience actually is. Not the psychological experience, but the visual perceptual experience — what they perceive.
sorry, i made a mistake,
meant:
I’ve always wondered what kids mean when they SAY faces are “distressing” “scary” etcetra, like your mention of being distressed by faces. I’ve always wondered what this experience actually is. Not the psychological experience, but the visual perceptual experience — what they perceive.
Do you have any of your TV video clips on your website for us to look at?
not yet.
I’ll see if someone more techy can think of how to do this.
but in any case you may see Nobody Nowhere at the movies in the not too distant future.
In the US as well? Curious who the actors are.
Congratulations!