The media has portrayed Autism as a disease, the DSM has defined it as a disorder, many in the ‘Autistic Pride’ movement call it a condition. But is there really so much difference between these terms? I thought I’d explore some of these definitions: Read the rest of this entry »
There’s vast online gatherings of enthused, sometimes fervent, even openly militant, self identified ‘Autistics’ who feel that Autism is a new ‘race’. Read the rest of this entry »
ADAM FEINSTEIN:
Hi Donna, sorry to trouble you, but I am currently reading a 2005 article by Brigitte Chamak about the autobiographical writings of people with autism and she contrasts your position and that of Temple Grandin and Jim Sinclair. Chamak says that Temple sees her particular gifts as inextricably linked to her autism and quotes Sinclair as saying that his autism is a “way of being … It is not possible to separate the autism from the person.” Read the rest of this entry »
For each of us on the spectrum the social communication issues are different… I’m face blind, didn’t process faces and bodies as a whole or get simultaneous processing of self/other until my 30s, am still context blind, 30% meaning deaf (at best), my prosody is sometimes odd because my word retrieval is sometimes mechanical and I have to try harder to keep my syntax intact…. and so my social style has remnants of these things… it makes me socially ‘klunky’, ‘out of sync’, even though I’m warm, friendly, empathic, highly sensing. Read the rest of this entry »
I just watched on Australian TV how horrendous the unemployment and homelessness is in America right now. Sure, maybe you’re afraid of needy people. They may seem like drowning people and you don’t want to be pulled under just because you reached out a hand. But many people who’ve fallen on hard times are not necessarily opportunists and give them an inch and that is in fact all they’ll take and look forward to being able to give something back. How do I know? I was homeless in my teens and intermittently through my 20s. So I pondered what each of us can do to get to know or constructively help those in these positions. Here’s some ideas : Read the rest of this entry »
I was asked re methylated B12 shots. Read the rest of this entry »
It is natural for children to dissociate before the age of 5 so spotting Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) in children is difficult. Most adults diagnosed with DID began splitting around age 4-6 with others as young as 2 and as old as 10 when they first begin splitting and developing alters. Read the rest of this entry »
An interesting article on recent findings with regards to False Memory Syndrome. Read the rest of this entry »
In a world of one's own
Before I became an autism consultant in 1996, I had heard about a teen and a young adult who both ‘outgrew’ their autism by age 5. It was around 1992, before Aspergers had become a diagnosis in the English speaking world. Both had been formally diagnosed as ‘classically autistic’, one in the late 1960s, one in the late 1970s, both in an era where autism was deemed rare, 4 in 10,000, where one had to be quite recognizably autistic to get a diagnosis, far more so than today with a rate of 1 in 150 where almost any avoidant, solitary, developmentally delayed child with delayed speech who stims is diagnosed with ASD. Read the rest of this entry »
Donna Williams is an Australian born adult with autism who was assessed as psychotic at the age of 2 in 1965, labelled disturbed in the 1970s and diagnosed as autistic in her 20s in 1991.
She acquired functional speech in late childhood and went on to become a qualified teacher with an honors degree in Sociology and a degree in Linguistics. She is the author of two international bestselling autobiographies and has 10 published books including 4 text books widely used in autism education and two books of poetry and prose.
As a screenwriter, she wrote the screenplay to “Nobody Nowhere”, the first book in her 4 book autobiographical series. That screenplay is currently under option to become a Hollywood film. She is an professional artist, singer-songwriter and published poet as well as a world renowned public speaker on autism now living with her husband in Australia. In her presentations she draws not only on her own experiences but on international experience as a professional autism consultant since 1996.
Donna’s is a speaker in demand around the world due to her unique perspective and ability to share her feelings and experiences on a very personal level. More information about her and her life’s work can be found on her website at http://www.donnawilliams.net .