He watched the movie and now.....

[TeDo]

I have been reading books written by Temple Grandin lately. For those of you that don't know, she's a very successful woman with high-functioning autism. Her story is interesting and her books are all written from her perspective. I found out they made a movie about her so I watched it tonight. difficult child 1 was in the room with me on the laptop but stopped and watched it (without a single word from me). He made comments throughout the movie and when it was done he said "We HAVE to talk to her! We need to find her phone number" and he proceeded to google her. I asked him if he could relate to any of it and his response was "Duh, yeah, ALL of it. That's why we have to find her!"

I found it interesting that he could see himself in the movie. I actually find it rather refreshing that he can connect some of her behavior and thinking to his own. It's very intriguing. I really wish I could take him to meet her but Colorado is quite a distance from us (most anywhere is financially undoable right now).

 

[Ktllc]

If he can't meet her in person, how about e-mails? I've heard that she does answer to them.
How about talking about other autistic people that are successful? I've watched a documentary on netflix that showed a few different adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). All at different level and it also had a good debate on what "high functioning" is or isn't. I think it was "loving lampposts".
I agree that having a role model whom he can relate to is so important.
husband did a self assessing test online last week out of curiosity and he tests in the Asperger range. Sure it is NOT a diagnosis, but made us wonder: should husband seek an official diagnosis just so that he can tell V one day "see, I too think differently but still was able to make it in the world and find happiness".

 

[Bunny]

I think it's great that he feels that he can relate to her. I saw the movie about her and I thought she was inspiring.

 

[buddy]

She was here at the autism conference several yrs ago. Maybe she will speak around here again. I admired her very much but found her pretty rigid in her idea of what autism looked like, lol. Imagine that. The movie was really good I thought. It's so cool he saw a successful person who used her perspective to all of our benefit. He should email her.

 

[TeDo]

What amazed me is that he saw himself in her. THAT to me is huge. And he loved the idea of using her obsessions to make a very successful career. He's trying to fingure out which of his obsessions he can do that with! LOL

 

[InsaneCdn]

TeDo? in real life, finding out how to make commercial use of our obsessions is pretty much a consistent definition of "success" - not necessarily in $$ but in quality of life.

I'm trying to find out how to turn 10+ years of difficult child case management into a career...

 

[TerryJ2]

Wow, that's great! She IS awesome.