UK Programme on Autism Tonight, 9.00pm on BBC4

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What I like about this documentary is that it is mostly pragmatic towards autism. It doesn't deny the emotional aspect, but there is no sensationalism like there is with other autism documentaries.

I have a personal nit pick, though; the idea that aspies don't get art or are extremely logical and mathematical.Plenty of aspies are irrational and have very strong emotional responses to people's faces and I felt that they didn't explain that. Oh well, it's a great documentary nevertheless. I'm sure it will be very helpful for many people.

When's the next episode on, covering OCD?

Monday 20th August at 9.00pm BBC4

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01m42rz

Last edited by nessa238 on 18 Aug 2012, 4:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

I agree with your nit pick - I love art and get a lot out of it emotionally and I'm rubbish at maths and I've met plenty of aspies who act in a very illogical manner, so it's an inaccurate stereotype in my opinion. Everyone varies by degree in all things anyway. It's often only the people with Aspergers who have significant ability in maths/some other subject that get documentaries made about them or books written in an effort to show how positive the condition can be. I feel that it often makes me feel worse though as I don't have any of these 'special talents'; nothing that would make an interesting TV programme anyway and that's what it's all about - holding the interest of an audience, not dealing with boring reality! An excess of mathematical ability can often indicate that a person is a savant as well and this often goes hand in hand with the person being unable to manage their own life very well ie genius in maths but practically childlike as regards life.

Thanks for posting this, I found it really interesting. And although not perfect, it is definitely a step in the right direction compared with some other documentaries, in my opinion.

I can totally relate to Zane, when I think about going to work "There's too much noisy!" lol And the whole "I don't like the people, I don't want to go" (not that I dislike all the people, but just the general "people" factor). I felt frustrated for him when his Mum kept trying to tell him that he actually DOES like school and the people, when clearly he had stated otherwise.

I also found the art interpretation interesting, and like others, I wondered what emotion we were supposed to see. I also saw a blank staring face and probably would have asked the girl "What are you thinking?" as I often do with people.
I often get anxious and confused with people's blank stares... I just thought they were void of emotion, but maybe I am just not as good at reading them ? I have to ask "What are you thinking?" often, and the answer often surprises me.

On Monday at 9:00pm...I think.

EDIT: My first edit was to correct my time error, but the second was to write this message.

Last edited by KnarlyDUDE09 on 18 Aug 2012, 6:03 am, edited 2 times in total.

Do you read all the posts on the thread?

Why post to say what I've already said though?

That makes no sense to me - can someone explain why people do this?

Well, I'm using a mobile device that is being quite stupid; all these posts are taking longer to load on my phone, so I don't see the post until after I've sent my own.

Ok that makes more sense, thanks.

I got a lot of emotions from the painting, but not a complete picture. Just words like 'worried' popped into my mind. I could write a whole story about why she looked upset though. I wouldn't have been able to see anything a few years ago. I remember my teacher showed me a photograph of three naked women and asked me what the meaning behind it was. All I thought was there are three naked ladies distracting me from looking on Deviant Art.
The psychologist asking about the painting reminded me of one psychologist I had trying to get me to explain how a picture made me feel.

When I was smacked as a kid I would hold it against my parents. In fact there's many things I still haven't forgiven my mother for because she just punished me without explaining anything. And now I usually think of those moments of her being a 'psycho.' The damage has been done. When I was about 13 she pretty much snapped and started beating me over and over, then years later she snapped in the same way and beat our dog. So maybe through my experience I see all smacking as parents having their kids as a punching bag during a meltdown. And no she isn't on the spectrum, I suspect ADHD.

I don't think kids learn from being smacked. They just become fearful. I still think violent behaviour needs to be controlled but my nephews and nieces aren't smacked, just given a firm word and they settle down pretty quickly. I thought my nephew had ADHD but he does listen to his parents when he gets in trouble, and he focuses so well on people. I think kids on the spectrum or with ADHD will respond to physical punishment even less. The ADHD kids can't control their behaviour and the autistic kids need to know exactly what they are doing is wrong and what is the appropriate behaviour. Like one lady said on the documentary the kids are fighting for their lives. They are in pain, they are scared.

I didn't even notice how articulate Zane was. It doesn't matter how young someone is I don't see age. Actually my 3 year old nephew is at that level. And my 6 year old nephew talks like he's 12. It's so hard for me to see age when I'm surrounded by all these bright kids.

I wouldn't mind seeing the OCD story, but I'm more interested in the dyslexia one. I see just dyslexia as a disorder where social skills are affected the less, just from who I've known with dyslexia. Would like to see them cover dyspraxia and maybe they could do an interview with Daniel Radcliffe. I'm interested to see bipolar in children too.

Also, there has been a documentary about adults with autism in Australia. I might have it uploaded onto one of my Youtube accounts. Don't hold your breath though. I almost got kicked off for posting a video from the MTV Awards and was very nervous about uploading another video on a public site.

Yeah I thought the girl in the picture looked in fear. So my mum comes out and says "She's not showing fear, she looks sad. You probably did not mean fear."
I think what I was doing is seeing from her perspective, she is possibly by herself and her mouth is very much small as though she should not talk as predators will come for her.
Minus the book, piano skills and university... I'd say I'm a lot like Michael.
Somehow though I do feel as though they talked about socialising and how people with autism aren't always able to communicate as well as NTs but not really being taught this with any of them... minus Toby as he has the cards to express himself.

Yeah I thought the girl in the picture looked in fear. So my mum comes out and says "She's not showing fear, she looks sad. You probably did not mean fear."
I think what I was doing is seeing from her perspective, she is possibly by herself and her mouth is very much small as though she should not talk as predators will come for her.
Minus the book, piano skills and university... I'd say I'm a lot like Michael.
Somehow though I do feel as though they talked about socialising and how people with autism aren't always able to communicate as well as NTs but not really being taught this with any of them... minus Toby as he has the cards to express himself.

From the BBC website:

Here's this week's one, on OCD:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV_Pj5lxUDo[/youtube]