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I never really understood what autism felt like for people on the spectrum, till someone described it to me as a sensory integration or perception issue. That your senses are either over-stimulated, so you close down or over-react to block out the discomfort, or under-stimulated, so you just don't respond. Entire regions of the brain don't process or connect properly - imagine computers in every office of a building that aren't networked correctly, so they can't speak to each other and transmit data or instructions.
So the computers shut down. Turn themselves off. Implode.
One of the most heart-breaking aspects of autism for me is the concept of children wanting to communicate but being unable to. Everyone assumes that it's the high-functioning Aspergers who are the brilliant ones, but what if that's not the case? What if someone "low-functioning" on the autism scale, the mute, the immobile, the unapproachable, wants to communicate, but simply can't? Having often been unable to break out of my own personal prison of shyness despite desperately wanting to (unless fuelled by quantities of alcohol), I try to empathize with people locked inside their own world. Some day, post-Google, I want to help them.
Occasionally autistic children break out. And their voices, those of Temple Grandin, or Carly Fleischman for example, help give so much more insight into the paralyzing effects of sensory integration and processing issues.
With 1 in 70 boys now being diagnosed as autistic according to the CDC; 1 in 110 children -- a staggering number that is a 600% increase over the past 20 years -- please take a moment to see how these children are feeling. What they are experiencing. Gain an understanding of where they are coming from and how to help.
Watch this link: http://wimp.com/autisticgirl/
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