Im currently writing a paper on Autism. You have always been an inspiration for me , how cool that you have a blog !!! Great !!! Hope all is swell, Congrats and Thanks !!!

stem cells research shouldn’t mean people seek to eradicate all diversity and it shouldn’t be based on presumptions that one form of abilities is more socially valueable than another nor on the presumption that what is labeled disability is ALWAYS and in ALL WAYS DISability.

Saying that, there are many in the Aspie world who are worried about the whole stem cell direction re autism and my view is that the stem cell direction makes sense regarding metabolic disorders and immune deficiency rather than ‘autism’ and perhaps through this should help those with severely disabling levels of mood, anxiety, compulsive or attentional disorders but I think that we shouldn’t see a bland society by setting out to remove all mood, anxiety, compulsive or attentional challenged humans from society. So many wonderful things come from diversity, from struggle and from different perception. At the same time, if the underlying causes are physical health ones, sure, help people in ways that a greater percentage reach fuller potential on a range of levels.

Donna

I struggle to process what I see, if its STATIC, but if its moving or held, processed through the kinesthetic, then meaning is no problem.

So its a very odd situation.

I do have the same problem processing written language as auditory language, the processing for meaning is partial, the retention poor and the tumbling effect. Hence I can scan read and can read small chunks, but can’t read novels. So be it, I’ll just write them instead.

I’ve been tested for both CAPD and LPD and am told that I have LPD which results is poor ability to tell speech from general noise, meaning I don’t filter and so overload. This mimics CAPD but mine is not an auditory problem.

I understand gesture very easily as it moves. But stagnant objects evade me if they are new and not in expected placements.

Also my gestural signing is not like Auslan, ASL or Makaton. Its DIRECT… meaning it looks very close to what it actually is… it doesn’t require interpreting like many signs in deaf sign or Makaton. The downside is that with my gestural signing, the same sign for apple (the biting of an apple) is the one for pear, etc. So mine augments language but can’t replace it on any refined level.

The good side is that LPD its instant, but deaf signing and Makaton require more retrieval time based on stored learned associations. My sign for toilet is the gesture to pull one’s trousers down …. a lot easier to retrieve than running two fingers across one’s heart or making a ‘T’ figure with one’s palm and finger…. why? because when I pee I don’t make a ‘T’ anywhere and I don’t do a boy scout thing over my heart…. that sort of sign is irrelevant to the immediate kinesthetic experience and concept. Guess that’s the key, my home signs are almost all based on a kinesthetic experience of the world.

such is like.

I fit a sort of functional agnosia model - auditory and visual.

in any case I get by with a bucket of strategies and plenty of self advocacy.

Donna Williams
http://www.donnawilliams.net

signing is an alternative way to obtain meaning during communication

in signing, one must receive the information, as one receives speech: one must see the signing happen, interpret/read it, and understand it, just as speech is heard, interpreted, understood.

it seems that reception is involved just as much in both cases. in speech, is it auditory reception. in signing, it is visual reception.

would, then, the problem with speech reception be considered a general “receptive language processing disorder”? if one can receive language from other means, it seems that the problem is not one of this general disorder, but rather a problem of the reception of auditory language (not written language, not signed language).