Understanding Autism

I picked up the recent New York Times magazine Understanding Autism while waiting in line at the store. It has four major sections: child and family, autism and science, aiding the autistic and autism in our culture. While a couple of the articles are bout science, the majority of the text is a series of essays about living with autism. Some are from parents' point of views, others from siblings. Each captures a glimpse of the world of a person with autism.

Susan Dominus wrote about Ben Hirasuma in "An Office with Room for Understanding." Ben works for Auticon, a business in California that specialized in hiring people on the spectrum. The author comments on being the "norm in an office, rather than an exception, is an unqualified relief" (p. 48). Often I have heard expressed the relief and joy people with disabilities feel when then interact with others like them. While we push for integration into regular education programs and mainstreaming, we often fail to appreciate the importance in connecting with others like ourselves. Ben clearly finds peace in being the norm not the outlier. As parents we want our children with disabilities to be fully included into society and accepted as they are. When they are challenged, however, it is a relief for them to know that there are others out there like themselves. Finding support groups and social groups that connect us to others is normal for adults- there are cancer and other illness related support groups for individuals and their families, substance abuse support groups, and parents of children with disability groups. Rarely, however, do we see such groups at schools. Perhaps we should see more of them- and not push the members to make more connects with "normal" people.

Marie Myung-Ok Lee pens an essay, "The Trouble with Autism in Novels." She is a parent of a child on the spectrum, author and professor. She laments the way people on the spectrum are at as symbolic elements in literature. I lament the need of all literature professors to see symbolism where none exists. (In high school I penned an essay about the relationship between Zeena and her cat in Ethan Frome. No, I do not believe such a relationship exists, but I do believe we see what we ae looking for in our reading when we are closely looking to analyze text.) I am afraid that she is putting thoughts and generalizations into literature that were not intended by the author.

This text offers interesting glimpses into the world of people with autism. Such reading is important for others interacting with those on the spectrum- I mean everyone.