Why Your Child Is Autistic Video

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StZq-hbdzgE

That was first?

I think I got it, it seems like you are encouraging parents to look ppast the "label" of autism into what actually causes the behaviors associated with it. Which is fine.

What did you mean by the segment when your child was looking for your approval? Are you saying that a lot of parents miss communication from their kids because they interpret certain behaviors as "autistic" and thus having little meaning?

Maybe he is indicating that the child is acting a little unsure and unusual.

Phil,

I like your channel, but think this video IS quite a bit wordy. At least I see what you are trying to do, and agree with it.

I know its wordy but I feel that any parents who are going to take the time to truly understand and help their kids will be willing to listen...those who wont listen to some videos wouldnt take the time to get to know and understand their kid anyways.
This is just the first video...it is all leading up to explaining to parents that they need to truly and deeply understand Aspergers syndrome.
But first I have to convince them that they themselves may have aspergers traits...whew, it gets involved.
Thanks for watching guys and wish me luck in convincing a few parents to stop trying to cure autism and start trying to understand it instead.
Phil

The blanket simile was very effective!

This was interesting, and I liked what you said at the end about trying to understand autism. However, at one point I thought you were talking about "curing" autistic behaviors (not sure I understood correctly though). Although some people can change some behaviors- to some extent- this is not the same as "curing" autism. Some behaviors may never change, and some may be better left alone- (i.e., is it really helping the individual?)- although in other instances the person may benefit, so it really is a very complicated issue, and even varies from person to person. With all the "anti-autism hype" going around these days, as well as the "cure" hype, I guess it´s just very important to be clear and precise about what you want to say, so there are no misunderstandings.

He made it clear that autism was PART of the child(I think he said it was intermingled with the child), and not just some blanket(malady) that could be removed(cured), leaving a normal child. The autism ITSELF is part of the child. ANOTHER way of looking at it was that you should attempt to try to cure some of the SYMPTOMS, as opposed to Autism. Although that second one clearly won't be done 100%, some symptoms CAN be reduced or hidden.

I was confused as well. I wasn't sure if it was headed towards "curing" autism, or not.

I wanted to keep it vague because many of the parents that i want to lead down my train of thought believe in 'curing' their children.
I dont want to lose them on the first video...so thats why many people may be confused as to where i stand with curing autism.
If i am to reach the parents who want to cure their children and view autism as a blanket overtop of their normal children...then i have to talk their lingo...and as being a parent who once thought that way, i find it easy to talk to them in terms they can identify with.

I thought it was pretty clear. I watched the video now with countless pauses because of the mass of talking, but I thought it was easy to understand. I thought it was a very good video too... kinda like always. Philcommander's videos were the very first I saw when I was thrown into this whole ASD topic, so I'm a little biased.

But maybe I just think the message is perfectly clear, because I had a similar discussion about another term just this week.

People having the hardest time to not think of 'disability' as a 'genetic defect', 'inborn illness' and 'original static state' when asked to define disability (after working with disabled kids and youths for the past months).

I could understand them, but they couldn't understand me and thought I was speaking gibberish (though my explaining probably didn't help). They were like, but it's the person who is born with a thing missing or added which is why they're disabled. And I was like, we're speaking of behaviours here that get labelled as 'disability' and form a disorder, not something that exists as a separate notion.

The misconception is all over the place and it seems it's hard for people to understand the 2nd view on any disorder, disability, whatever and how the 2 ways of seeing the same compare. I don't understand why it's hard to understand, but I know it is because that's how some of my dearest friends cannot really understand too.

I'm looking forward to the next video in that series.

Last edited by Sora on 11 Oct 2008, 7:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I agree with Sora. It was VERY easy to understand. You covered things like 3 ways and went over them a LOT! What was vague?

Sora,

Autism is sometimes viewed as something FAR more involved than what you appear to have. That other stuff seems to not REALLY be autism, but maybe comorbid problems. Some REALLY LFAs appear to have no real desire to learn, and people with AS are supposed to have a STRONG desire to learn, even if only 1 or 2 things. Maybe some of the REALLY badly affected LFAs just have effectively NO desire to learn. Some parts that have to do with learning and attention are apparently badly affected in autistic people. Maybe some just have them really BADLY affected.

In any event, some people can't understand what you are saying while they think about that.

Thanks for the video philcommander. I hope more parents start to get it, that autism is part of their kid (something that perhaps can be improved with a little help) but not something that kidnapped their child's soul. Understanding is the most important thing a parent can do for their autistic child. The way many parents unfortunately handle autism reminds me of a parent of a deaf child trying desperately to cure deafness, but not bothering to learn sign language to try and communicate with their kid. Cure first, then automatically understand their "complete" child seems to be the popular approach to autism. But hopefully even a few parents will see this and be willing to try something that requires a little more patience than a "cure".

"Why is my child autistic?"
"Because he has autistic behavior."


Okay, so what happens when a abused child or a deaf child is having the behavior? Does that make them autistic?

Seriously, other conditions out there share the same signs. Even some abused children have the behavior and so do deaf kids.



Don't forget mental retardation. They both have the same characteristics; needs for routine, communication problems, social problems, problems with self help, etc. so no wonder people get MR and autism mixed up or why they even think autism and MR are the same thing.

spokanegirl...You are making my point!
other conditions share the same behaviors so we need to ask the question "Why is my child behaving this way?" and not "What cures autism?"
If we pay attention to the behavior and try to understand it we may find out that its not behavior we want to change...or it might be behavior we want to guide and direct into appropiate behavior (like a kid hitting other kids when he or she doesnt get their way...you guide that feeling of frustration into an appropiate response) or it might be behavior we want to actually try and see if there is a medical reason behind it.
But all of those behaviors get lumped together when parents are obsessing on curing their child.
Please keep watching the vids and in the end you will see the real message that i am trying to get across to parents...but i have to lead them down a certain way of thinking first.
Phil

I'm glad that I was being raised in the 70s and 80s and not today. I've had the chance to become a unique person, instead of one of society's sheep.

Thank you, philcommander, for clarifying that for me! Now I understand much better.

I have one more question, that I forgot to ask: why is it that you didn´t see at first that your child was looking for your approval when saying words? Is it because his non-verbal signals were different than they would have been had he been neurotypical, or for another reason? Forgive me if this sounds like a dumb or obvious question, but I´m just curious.