Classical Gas/Autism Optimism
On deadline days I’ve taken to listening to radio stations through my iTunes, and though I love classical music, I find it quite annoying that classical DJs always talk in that whispery voice, as though they’re sharing an incredible secret. Speak up, DJs! I can’t hear you! SPEAK UP! Now I’ve switched to vocal jazz, and am just as annoyed by Carmen McRae. Maybe there’s no hope.
There are a lot of optimistic autism stories lately. The new US magazine features Jenny McCarthy and her son, who she says has recovered from autism by going on a special diet. He’s just like a normal boy, she says, except (as seen in the below photo) he’s always trying to feel her boobs. Otherwise? Fine.
In Newsweek, in an online exclusive, Claudia Kalb talks to a blogger with an autistic son, who was puzzled by John McCain’s citing of Sarah Palin of some kind of autism expert.
Spotlight on Autism
No, but seriously. On a more somber note, the New York Times magazine this weekend had an article by Melissa Fay Greene about the way some kids on the autistic spectrum can be helped by alternative schools and approaches. One of these schools has modest goals, but good-hearted intentions:
T.C.S. does not promise miracles. It does not promise to be a perfect fit for every teenager with an A.S.D. Dave Nelson does not invest great faith in the possibility of leaving the autism spectrum behind, no matter how much parents (like himself) would love to believe it. The breakthroughs at T.C.S. are subtle rather than headline-grabbing, noticeable at first only to the adults closest to the kids and to the students themselves. But for these families, any forward motion can inspire a moment of real hope and happiness, and quite remarkable progress happens every day.
Okay, back to deadline now.
Liz | 12:53 PM | Uncategorized
just as mccain probably thought women across the country would back his vp choice simply because she’s a woman, he probably thinks that parents with special needs children are also naive enough to fall for his rhetoric. i think he’s in for a fierce slap in the jowls come election day.
As an autistic man, with an autistic son, I found that issue of US Weekly, well disgusting. And not just for the half of the magazine filled with celebrity gossip.
Autism, as I have come to understand it, and deal with it, is not something you can “beat”. It is something you learn to live with, and while you can be trained to work with people who are not autistic and function in normal society, you always feel different from them, because you experience things in ways they can’t understand.
It would be easier for me to explain a rainbow to someone has been blind all of their life than to explain what I feel, and sometimes don’t feel.
Dear Liz,
I just watched 2 of your Youtube videos and I like you already! You cheered me up somehow as I head to a new psychiatrist who I pray will help me with spasmodic tortocollis/psychogenic dystonia that I’m certain had its beginnings in several years of Seroquel.
Thank you thank you sweet girl . . . I’ll get back to you later
peace,
mickey
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