Autism is a World

This film was not surprising to me in the sense of how capable Sue Rubin is, we have all heard of similar examples of people who are highly intelligent and capable and who have Autism (Temple Grandin, Amanda Baggs). But what was surprising was how this film made me aware of one of my own students who I worked with everyday this year and who I have repeatedly stated has a lot of knowledge and who has no ability to communicate all that he knows. This film makes me worried for him. Sue's stated that she was "lost in autism for 13 years". Is he? Her communication allows her to show her intelligence, to share her personality and humour, to have a relationship that is valued by those of us who need that social interaction, and ultimately, to be heard. I worry for my student that he has something more he wants to share and hasn't been given the opportunity and that he feels "lost in Autism" and that he wants to ask the same questions Sue has, like "I want to know why I do weird, awful Autistic things that I don’t want to do." My student has behaviours that he does and then immediately apologizes for them and gets upset over his own actions. When Sue stated, "I can be my own worst enemy", my heart went out to both her and my student. We all know the feeling of being disappointed in ourselves, our behaviour and our mistakes, and to feel that and not have the ability to change and so to be feeling those feelings repeatedly and with no control... I can't imagine.
I was also impressed and fascinated by her self-awareness. She knows how she is perceived by others, she knows what she could do to be viewed differently, she is aware of how she reacts to watching water, etc. but she needs these things and takes comfort in them. I have a student who is verbal and is high functioning with Autism and he has an awareness of himself and changes his behaviour and tries to learn from social mistakes, communication errors, and behaviour that people don't understand, but I never considered before that my other non-verbal student with Autism would have the same level of awareness. As a result of seeing Sue communicate so eloquently and reveal so much about herself and her awareness, I want to share this video with my student's family as they have been trying to teach him speech and communication skills for years through prompt and prompt fading with social scripts, etc. - I am not sure that they tried a communication device such as a simple speller, though he can spell and certainly can understand language-based communication. It seems like such an obvious next step, but being my first year with this student I just went with the programming for speech that was already established. I wonder if "language is washing over" him, too. Also, his parents are so involved and educated in the field of Autism, that I wouldn't want to insult their position as advocates and parents. Sue Rubin certainly did open my eyes to Autism as a world.