Autism from a teenagers point of view
To all readers,
As you have started reading this you probably know what this is about but just in case you don’t I’ll describe it to you, making sure I don’t give to much away. My name is Lisa Kerr and I’ve written this book so that people can see how hard it is to cope with a brother with Autism and Adhd together and maybe try to help people in the same situation and try to help people understand what it is much better. My brother Ben has Autism and adhd and recently I made a website about it and then decided because the website was so successful I’d start writing a book about it so I did. For more information log onto the website address below.
www.freewebs.com/lisakerr3
Ben is my brother but isn’t exactly a normal boy as he has Autism and ADHD, which affect his brain and speech. He was diagnosed with Autism when he was about 4 ½ and he was about 5 1/2 ½when he was diagnosed with ADHD (Attention, Deficit, Hyperactive, Disorder.)
I’m nearly the only person who knows every word he says but if I don’t and nobody else does he will go mad and hurt everyone by i.e. head butting, kicking, slapping, throwing things around the room etc. mostly he does that in his playroom which is where he spends most of his time watching his videos and playing with his toys. But often if his toys go missing he gets angry and upset and does the things I mentioned above. We know he doesn’t mean it and we know it’s apart of his ADHD and he doesn’t feel the pain until after he has calmed down.
I feel sorry for him because some kids are afraid of him and they often run away! “But wouldn’t you”?
If he sees anything in your mouth like (i.e. if you where eating chewing gum, you blew a bubble, or he seen it in your mouth it would turn his stomach and he would sometimes get sick.
Is There a Cure For Autism?
Unfortunately there is no cure for Autism, but it can be helped.
The Causes are still unknown though the studies from scientists think that Autism is linked with prenatal exposure to the Rubella Virus (German measles) and lack of oxygen during birth.
Autistic children usually play alone often engage in repetitious activities, such as arranging objects in meaningless patterns, flipping a light switch on and off, or staring at rotating objects, body movements such as spinning, swaying, rocking, snapping there fingers and clapping or flapping their arms. In some cases these movements can be harmful as they can involve repeated biting of the wrists or banging their head, but it is worse when you have both autism and Adhd!
An Autistic child is able to remember a place that he/she hasn’t been in a long time or can remember who got what and who he/she got it from Ben likes to give hugs and says hi to everyone he meets but if something goes missing it’s a totally different ben! Or if he doesn’t get his own way! L
Ben’s school
Ben goes to a special school called little angles and since he has started I can see a big change in him which is great, they have a lot of stuff for them so they can relax and they have a sensory room which Ben loves. He also goes swimming and horse riding, P.E.
As with all autistic children they are extremely intelligent so you may be thinking maybe my child doesn’t want to speak! Your child definitely wants to speak due to the abnormally low blood flow to certain parts of the brains cells and reduced number of brain cells, they are not able to speak well and sometimes they repeat words over and over.
When Ben was younger and if anyone especially me went out of the house he would cry and look out the window until we (I) would come back.
Education of Students with Learning Disorders
Education of Students with Learning Disorders, area in the field of special education that deals with the instruction of students whose achievement in school is substantially below levels expected for their age, amount of schooling, and level of intelligence. Students with learning disorders have average or above-average intelligence but suffer from impaired brain function. This impairment makes it difficult for them to acquire skills and knowledge accurately and fast enough to keep pace with average academic progress. Approximately 5 percent of students in public schools in the
In the early 1960s public schools in some states began to provide special education services for students with learning disorders. However, the field of learning disorders did not become widely recognized as a legitimate component of special education until the mid-1970s, when the federal government passed the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. This law required public schools to provide special education services for students with learning disabilities. Despite this federal mandate, educators, doctors, and researchers have had difficulty producing a well-accepted definition of the term learning disability. They disagree about what kinds of learning problems constitute authentic disabilities requiring special education services and financial support.
Schools identify learning disabilities by using various formulas and tests to show discrepancies between the student’s level of intelligence and his or her achievement. Students often display evidence of learning disabilities when they perform below average in school but perform at normal or above-normal levels on intelligence tests. Some experts have argued that schools overlook many students with significant learning disabilities, because their methods of assessment do not account for a wide range of problems not adequately measured on standard intelligence tests. These problems include difficulties with language, attention, memory, and organization. As a result, many experts in the field of special education use the term learning disorders to refer to a wider range of problems experienced by many students in school.
Common Learning Disorders
There are many types of leaning disorders and they affect different aspects of the learning process. Some learning disorders cause serious delays in learning to read. Others may harm spelling, mathematical, or writing abilities. Some of the more common learning disorders include (1) language disorders, (2) attention deficits, (3) memory disorders, (4) motor weaknesses, (5) spatial or sequencing difficulties, and (6) higher order thinking deficiencies.
Learning Disorders
Some students have problems understanding or expressing ideas in language. These problems can slow down or even stop the learning of a wide range of skills, including reading, spelling, and writing. There are many kinds of language disorders. They include difficulty in interpreting language sounds, trouble in understanding word meanings, difficulties with the understanding and construction of sentences, and confusion that occurs with lengthy or complex language. Some students with language problems have difficulty expressing themselves. Others have trouble making sense of spoken language that enters their minds, such as when listening to a speech or reading a book
Why I do not like the word Handicapped, and why you are so lucky you don’t have Special Needs
I do not like the word handicapped because I feel that it’s not very nice to call someone that when they could say Special Needs. As I have special needs and I have been called Handicapped a number of times I feel hurt by it and it can crush the persons confidence to think that people thinks that they look like they are. I don’t think that word should be used at all. I think that the word that people should be using to describe us is Special Needs because we are no different really to anyone else apart from having a disability! I often ask this question to people who call it! How would you like it if I called you Handicapped how would you like it? Sometimes they would say I wouldn’t care and laugh and sometimes they wouldn’t answer the question. I think Special Needs should be discussed in every school and about no picking on people who have Special Needs because after all we didn’t want to be born with Special Needs and we can’t change the way we are! So you should have some respect for people who have Special Needs because we do not call you any names so you shouldn’t do it to us!
Some people don’t realise that they are so lucky that they don’t have to live with having special needs and have to live with the difficulties we face everyday of our life.! The people who do not have Special Needs are so lucky because people like us wish that we could do he things that everyone else can do but can’t maybe because health restrictions, disabled etc. So you should be thanking God that you can do things that others can’t! So don’t judge someone because there different or because of the way they look or the way they are because you never know they could be smarter that you think they are!
Memory Disorders
Schoolwork can place excessive demands on the memory capacity of some students. Problems experienced by such students include difficulty filing certain kinds of new information in their short-term memory; maintaining several things in memory all at once, such as remembering ideas while creating a sentence; or finding information in long-term memory. Students with memory disorders often have their greatest frustration in mathematics and writing, two areas that demand rapid and accurate memory.
Videos
Videos plays a big part In Bens life although he wasn’t able to say what the characters said in the video he still enjoyed watching the videos and copying what they do! But all that has changed as his speech has come on extremely well and we can understand what he say more now and so can everyone else! This is really good. He has so much videos and toys I can’t remember half of them! I used to have to put the videos on for him because he wasn’t able to but all that has changed as he has taught himself how to rewind, fast forward, play, stop and eject videos which is a really good achievement for him to be able to do that!
Why people that don’t have a disability take things for granted
People who don’t have a disability usually take things for granted. They should wake up every morning and thank God that they can walk, talk properly can get a proper education, get a proper job. Do things that some people can’t but some people don’t they don’t care too much or even think about helping people to reach there full potential and achieve something they have always want to achieve and then they start to make them feel bad about themselves by calling them things that they shouldn’t, by making fun of them, Bullying them etc. which has become a big thing of the 21st Century. I think it’s extremely cruel to make fun of someone who has a disability whether it be a physical, mental, memory, hyperactive disorder, speech disorder, Down Syndrome etc. I think that those people that do that don’t know anything about having special needs and they just think that because they don’t that they can make fun and or bully people that have special needs. And you know they say? Mocking is catching! And just because you may not look like you have special needs and you don’t feel like you have special needs does not completely mean you don’t, because I didn’t even know till I was in 6th class in primary school that I had special needs even though I was going to remedial classes since I was in first I was about 7 when I first went to a remedial class. After that when I made my confirmation I was about 13/14 I went to a special school called St. Bernadette’s School. Which used to be called St. Bernadette’s Special school but Special was taking out and I was happy that it was because people would be looking and saying do they have special needs, and some people may just make fun of us! I’m not bothered but there is some people who call me it and then I ask them do they know what it means and they always say yes and I ask them and they don’t have a clue what it means! Some people say sorry and they won’t call me it again but sometimes it’s different they’d call me it again and laugh! So much for I won’t call you it again sayin'!