Autism Awareness Advertising

It's Autism Awareness Week & Sunday, April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day.

I'd planned to be more active than usual this week, to amplify any messages arising out of these much needed initiatives.

After all, contributing to autism awareness was one of the reasons I created this space.

But, instead, I've needed to pay more attention to autism at home.  That's just the way it is ~ I'm nothing if not flexible!  And, actually, any day is a day to promote & appeal for awareness, acceptance, understanding & accommodation of autism & autistic individuals.

Having said that, I stumbled upon an available half hour or so, & I had this draft post ready to be revisited, so here I am, assuaging the guilt of not having supported Autism Awareness more so this week with the work of another who, in my view, has done a pretty good job at illustrating & highlighting some of the characteristics of autism.

It's an autism awareness advertising campaign I stumbled across at Behance.net created for the Autism Society of Pakistan by Hina Nazi.  I've copied out the copy, so to speak, for ease of reference but I think the strength of the campaign is really in the imagery & headlines.

Perhaps a little has been lost in translation, but I do have to say that I don't agree wholly with all of the wording used in the body copy & I have resisted the temptation to tweak ... but, then again, I must put on record that I would substitute 'temper tantrums' for 'meltdowns' as the two are very different.  Another day I may expand on that!

I hope it's helpful.

Hina Nazir via Behance.net 

MY BRAIN CANNOT FILTER OUT INFORMATION

Autistic individuals may be unable to filter out unwanted information and therefore perceive all the stimuli around them.  Such 'acute perception' brings an overwhelming amount of information which their brain has difficulty in interpreting.

Hina Nazir via Behance.net 

MY SOCIAL SKILLS ARE BROKEN

It is difficult for an autistic individual to interpret overt emotional expressions by other people, for instance facial expressions and body language.  Likewise they have difficulty communicating what they want to convey.

Hina Nazir via Behance.net 

MAKING EYE CONTACT IS QUITE DEMANDING

Making direct eye contact with people may be an overwhelming act for an autistic individual since it may be providing more information to an autistic individual than it would to an ordinary person.

Hina Nazir via Behance.net 

MY SENSES WEIGH ME DOWN

People diagnosed with autism may show signs of sensitivity towards one or more of their senses.  For example, people talking in a normal tone of voice may seem too loud to the point of being unbearable.

Hina Nazir via Behance.net 

INSTEAD OF WORDS THERE ARE BLANK SPACES

Autistic individuals may exhibit a limited vocabulary.  Therefore vocal communication may be hard for them, especially when they simply do not have the words to describe their feelings.

Hina Nazir via Behance.net 

MY EMOTIONS MAY EXPLODE

As autistic individuals have profound difficulties in understanding others and in communicating with them, it is hardly surprising for frustration, anger and anxiety to build up that can lead to temper tantrums.

Hina Nazir via Behance.net 

NO TWO AUTISTIC INDIVIDUALS ARE ALIKE

People with autism have varied skills, interests, abilities, characteristics, gifts, talents and needs.  No two autistic people experience it with the same intensity.  Their symptoms may vary from mild to extreme.

A Desolate Man

As Autism Awareness Week nears I thought it might be timely to provide a view of autism from a different perspective & so I'm sharing a story written by one of my children.

I say written.  Actually, it was dictated.  Writing can be a challenge for autistic people.  Or rather, processing what's being asked, formulating a response & then translating that response into the written word ~ all in one go ~ can be a challenge for autistic people.  There are a number of ways to help, but one that works well for us at home is to create a relaxed environment & wait for the spoken words to flow (& in so doing reduce the length of the process).

Then we capture those words as best we can, scribbling or typing furiously, or recording.

This has often resulted in some pretty amazing authoring, in my opinion.  One day, I heard about a writing competition for kids so I though I would encourage a submission.    

We got comfy & this is was the result, word for word.  It's not necessarily about autism ~ but it could be ~ but it's an illustration of an autistic brain at work. 

A Desolate Man

by my child

A desolate man waiting to be reborn.

As a man, it's like he's never going to survive.  

His desolate & trembled life, it's so cold to be him.

This man is so poor & so old & so ragged & no one really cares.

"Yeah, my life is pretty pointless."

"Every day is like I've just gone to hell."

"And now I'm singing through my feelings because I don't want to hold them back."

"I've got to make sure my life doesn't hold me back because, at the moment, everything in my way is going to."

"I've got to make sure no one is there."

"I've got to make sure I've got my own space."

"I've got to keep going."

"That is really something, like something in my tummy.  I probably just ate nothing but if feels like all my organs & my body are broken."

As this man's hope has started to fade away, the only thing he wants to see in his life is his wife.  She hasn't seen him for 20 years.  It's something he's been willing forever.  Now is his time to shine.  This man's heart is beating fast as they start to notice him.  His wife remembers him from years ago & they re-join together as one.  This is how this man's life goes from bad to good.

"It's been 20 years since I saw you."

"It's been way too long."

"Then let me join this calm & happy life on the beautiful coast of Scotland where people have joined together at so many events, I can't even say."

The End.


One characteristic of autism can be to have an idiosyncratic way of speaking.  Another can be a tendency to be over sensitive ~ to feel things more acutely & more deeply.

I think this story provides a small insight into both.

We don't know about the competition yet. 

from awelltraveledwoman.tumblr.com

Albert Einstein said ...

"Everybody is a genius.

But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree

 it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

Albert Einstein

For many autistic children, achieving to their potential at school is a bit like being a fish trying to climb a tree.  Or, more to the point, it's like being a fish that looks like a squirrel, in a class of squirrels, trying to climb a tree.

Being a fish out of water ~ trying to cope in unsuitable surroundings ~ is stressful in itself.   But to then be judged on your ability to climb when you were built to swim & having your climbing ability compared to that of squirrels, well, that's tough.

I know a little angel fish who tried to climb trees for years.  In hindsight, this little angel fish did pretty well ~ looking like & thinking it was a squirrel, the little angel fish was determined to fit in & be like all the other squirrels.  The real squirrels scurried up & down & between trees & socialised without a second thought.  The little angel fish climbed well at first but tired quickly & started to fall behind, moving from being an 'above average' climber, to being an 'average' climber, to being a 'below average' climber.
It didn't matter how hard the little angel fish tried to improve, it just couldn't climb any better &, in the end, the little angel fish refused to try any more.  

The little angel fish was exhausted & felt very stupid.

The problem was, no-one realised the little angel fish wasn't really a squirrel & even though the little angel fish refused to try & climb the tree, everyone told the little angel fish that this is what it must do. 

 "You look like a squirrel."  

"You must be able to climb like a squirrel."  

"Your mum must be a very soft squirrel not to make you climb better than you do."

"We'll have to get the Animal Welfare Officer involved & fine your mum for not making you climb trees if you don't try to climb more often."

"How are you ever going to get on in life if you don't climb trees?"

Days & months passed but nothing worked.  No-one could get the little angel fish to climb like the other squirrels & the little angel fish felt even more stupid.  In the end, some animal rescue centres got involved & told everyone that the little angel fish that looked like a squirrel was actually an angel fish & not a squirrel at all.

The little angel fish was moved from the forest of trees & put into a tank of salt water.  That's better, everyone thought, the little angel fish is in a tank of salt water where it can now swim with other fishes & be judged on it's swimming.

The little angel fish was relieved to be out of the forest & was very keen to start swimming & be judged on how well it swam.  But the water made the little angel fish splutter & splash.  Entering the water & swimming in the water was not as easy as the little angel fish had expected.  It tried & tried but, again, reached a point when it refused to try any more.  The salt water was really yucky & the little angel fish felt stupid all over again.

After a bit of to-ing & fro-ing, a very wise veterinarian assessed the little angel fish, visited the animal trainers who worked with the fish in the tank of salt water & visited some other animal trainers who worked with fish in a fresh water pond.  The very wise veterinarian announced that the little angel fish was a fresh water fish, not a salt water fish, so would only be able to achieve its best swimming if it was moved to a fresh water pond.  

So this is what happened.

The animal trainers who worked with fish in the fresh water pond tested the little angel fish on it's swimming ability in fresh water & discovered the little angel fish had a non-verbal swimming iQ of 135 (that's 5 points off genius swimming).

No-one else had spotted this before 

(except, maybe, the 'soft squirrel mum').

What a clever little angel fish.  

For the first time in a very long time the little angel fish felt proud.

So, it looks like Albert Einstein was right.

And, switching analogies from fauna to flora, so was Alexander den Heijer when he said: 

"When a flower doesn't bloom

you fix the environment in which it grows, 

not the flower."

Alexander den Heijer

Alone by Belhoula Amir via behance.net