The Way We See Low Functioning is Wrong!

[Streetwise]

A friend just told me about this:
"The people you might see sitting in a chair, rocking back and forth are ones with severe autism. Just remember this. If you ever see someone with autism who is rocking back and forth, and is unable to communicate audibly via their mouth and or hand gestures. Don't be surprised if they are smarter that you and me put together . There is this one guy who is like this. They thought he was unable to think. Turns out that for some reason he lacks the ability to speak like you and me. Yet has the uncanny ability to think and reason far better than most people and has published many books."

I saw a video of a guy who didn't speak, from the outside one would say he looked handicapped. He would speak in ways you see toddlers do when they learn to speak. But when he sat down at the piano, he was a master. It was like an ability he had was just getting unleashed. I though maybe he is unable to think like us, but he has abilities superhumane. I'm so impressed and glad that was a wrong way to think of it. They can think not only like us, but above our level. Which is incredible.
So that means even the kids with severe autism or what we call "low functioning autism" can actually be super geniuses.
Maybe most of them are.
And maybe that's also why there is no high or low functioning now, there is just ASD as a diagnosis. Because maybe we didn't understand that it's not an intelligence level, its actually how severe their lack of social skills is.
Which in turn makes them "look" like they cant think, but it's very untrue.
I'm very excited this is the case.
Spreading the word!!!

I know this is not exactly about low functioning autism but I'm sure motor neurone disease is an offshoot of that ,people with motor neurone disease are not or rarely cognitively impaired !my mother was more perceptive than me and she had the worst form of the disease I have ever seen.
just makes me ponder has that area of the brain been affected the same way as motor neuron disease to a lesser degree ,largest percentage of people with the disease do not lose speech until the last couple of months or so.
my mother lost her speech in the first four months it never returned .
it is documented that glutamate destroys the motor neurons if it is not released , The only problem is a low glutamate diet doesn't work we tried .
and the only medicine prescribed only prolongs life for three months .

 

[Streetwise]

I'm not really sure what is available to read. (It is a case-by-case basis.) We just had to adapt our parenting style to our ASD2 & ASD3 children on-the-fly.

Our ASD3 daughter has a mental age of 18 mos. We just have to manage her as an 18 month old (in a 23yo body).

Our ASD2 son has a mental age of 6-10yo and no concept of causation or consequences. He was not malicious, but tended to be dangerously impulsive with no effective means of correction. Now 30yo, he lives in a supervised apartment.

thanks I'll keep trying

 

[Gracey]

My male cousin would sit in his own crap if he didn’t have 24hr care.

He wears a crash helmet because he fits so often.

He walks with assistance now.
(He’s fifty odd. Wasn’t expected to live beyond 20yrs, he’s on the spectrum)

His ability to function independently is low, almost non existent, mine is able to be responsible for my children -(if I treat the whole thing as a problem needing a solution - not as harsh as sounds and effective)

Surely no one can tell me that when mentioning “I’m on the spectrum” they want people to bring someone like my cousin to mind and assume you’re just like him?

Okay, yes, I sound really awful saying something like that but his ability to function independently is really low when compared to mine.

Two different ends of the spectrum. I’m I really that heartless, ignorant or wrong to consider my cousin low functioning?

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

Surely no one can tell me that when mentioning “I’m on the spectrum” they want people to bring someone like my cousin to mind and assume you’re just like him?

Another reason not to bring it up. But agreed, nor to think of special ability.
Unless it's my special ability to go to the toilet.

Okay, yes, I sound really awful saying something like that

No you don't.
Your cousin won't mind.
(So mine was worse,taking the bad look off you)

A spectrum indeed.

 

[Gracey]

Another reason not to bring it up. But agreed, nor to think of special ability.
Unless it's my special ability to go to the toilet.



No you don't.
Your cousin won't mind.
(So mine was worse,taking the bad look off you)

A spectrum indeed.

Thank you

 

[Streetwise]

My male cousin would sit in his own sh•t if he didn’t have 24hr care.

He wears a crash helmet because he fits so often.

He walks with assistance now.
(He’s fifty odd. Wasn’t expected to live beyond 20yrs, he’s on the spectrum)

His ability to function independently is low, almost non existent, mine is able to be responsible for my children -(if I treat the whole thing as a problem needing a solution - not as harsh as sounds and effective)

Surely no one can tell me that when mentioning “I’m on the spectrum” they want people to bring someone like my cousin to mind and assume you’re just like him?

Okay, yes, I sound really awful saying something like that but his ability to function independently is really low when compared to mine.

Two different ends of the spectrum. I’m I really that heartless, ignorant or wrong to consider my cousin low functioning?

it's not your actual feeling about it that's bad! it's what people Who have toxic minds interpret it as!just because you're not caring for somebody else doesn't mean they aren't equal ! why is worth based on function ,my mother couldn't feed herself ,clean herself ,hold a book ,make a telephone call without technology ,walk, dress her self ,Cook a meal,write a letter !but I was terrified of life without her! she was calmer than me and more perceptive when she was completely paralysed ,she still made all the decisions .

 

[Gracey]

Unless it's my special ability to go to the toilet.

.

You wrote that on purpose. You knew I think in pictures.
I’m trying to eat my lunch and Un-think it.
No amount of shuddering, shaking my head and “Eurrrrgh” is erasing it.

Dagnabit Mr Fridge !

 

[All-Rounder]

thanks I'll keep trying

I found this
Autism Sgp

In it there is a scheme where it explains Low Functioning Autism. There are others too, to the right side.

 

[Nitro]

Want to tell us more about your own experience with Savant's Syndrome? xP

It would take too many words to fully describe what goes on inside of my head,so to attempt it might be futile.

Like Temple Grandin,I think in pictures.

I cannot control it,so I can't observe an entire room and pull it all up at will,my brain captures and saves what it wants to and discards what it doesn't feel is necessary.
If necessary to remember an item's location,it saves an image of it and what surrounds it,so if nothing gets disturbed,I can always find it.
For example,I can pull up images of the machine shop that was in the basement of the home I grew up in from as early as 5.

Not broad images of what it looked like,but very detailed images,down to yellow Markel paint stick labeling on Maxwell House steel coffee cans that were hung on nails by the dozens with what was in them.

There is the dirt mark on the floorboards above the dinosaur drill press from the quill hitting it.


There is the wall behind the same press with the grinding wheels that were hung on nails,most of the Norton branded evidences by the blotter paper attached to them to prevent cracking them when mounting them to a spindle.

Fifty years later,I can still walk right up to the coffee can survivors in their new locations at my father's shop.
One in particular that comes to mind is the one filled with the cast iron cutouts from the Corvair flywheels that were lightened for Don Yenko for the Stinger project in the mid 60s.
It is just labeled "IRON" with a slight run on the I and has a dent in it near the stretched out nail hole.

That shop was moved to the new location around 1972,so I was only 12 when it all went away.


Heck,I still remembering running a production job on an old South Bend 9 inch lathe that was my dad's first machine like it was yesterday. The lathe still exists and is in the attic of his shop to the left of the of the elevator near the front of his building.



It is quite distracting at times because of how often the floods of images are presented.
I call that process my flurry because of how it looks inside of my head.

The memory part doesn't amaze me as much as the filing and retrieval system that is in place.


Sorry about the wall of text...I never said it would be easy to describe.

 

[Streetwise]

I found this
Autism Sgp

In it there is a scheme where it explains Low Functioning Autism. There are others too, to the right side.

thanks

 

[Streetwise]

just looked up savant merriam Webster online dictionary astounded as my memory is so bad to know left it doesn't just mean autism it just means someone who is very Learned, it now also refers to developmental disorders where a person has an unusual ability but does not cope really at all in other ways

 

[Mr Allen]

I have a LOT of sympathy for low functioning people, most of them will never work, or have anything anywhere near resembling a, for want of a better word, normal adult life.

I've seen and lived with some of these people as nearly 25 years ago I left home to attend a residential "Special Needs" (I hate that word! Contrary to popular belief, disabled people are NOT "Special") College in Grimsby, England from April 1993 to the end of March 1995.

 

[Tom]

It's true in these cases, and even with HFAs, concerning intelligence you can't tell a book by its cover. You never know what the right key might unlock.

 

[the_tortoise]

I have a LOT of sympathy for low functioning people, most of them will never work, or have anything anywhere near resembling a, for want of a better word, normal adult life.

I don't know why a normal adult life is seen as the be all and end all of existance, why people assume that if you don't have a normal adult life then your existence must be miserable or somehow lacking.

As long as they have good care and are treated well (or at least not mistreated) by their community, I see no reason why lower functioning people can't lead very happy and fulfilling lives.

Just because a lower-functioning person's life might not make you happy and fulfilled (not you, specifically, Rich -- my use of "you" means "any given person who is not lower functioning") doesn't mean that it is not a happy and fulfilling life from the lower-functioning person's perspective (doesn't even matter if the person has no concepts for what a fulfilling life is, they can still feel happiness and satisfaction).

There is a clinician from Belgium named Peter Vermeulen who has spoken about autism and happiness, and in this video he talks about case studies to illustrate how a low-functioning person can have much better quality of life, be much happier, than a high-functioning person (It's a long video, the part I've mentioned starts about 5:14).....

 

[Nitro]

I have brought it up in the past that because of a language barrier there would be no way to determine what is actually going on inside a non-verbal autist's head.

Given the vast differences in ways that the autism spectrum can manifest itself,it wouldn't be too far a reach to entertain the possibility that they exist on a plane that we aren't capable of understanding.

 

[Progster]

I think that people can often have areas of high intelligence, giftedness or high ability. For example, a person of otherwise average intelligence might be exceptionally good at music or art or languages or mathematics, but this isn't the same as savant syndrome, that's something different. I've been told by a psychiatrist that I have 'high linguistic ability', for example, and I'm sure that there are many here with similar high ability in one specific area. Apparently, when one learns a specific skill, such as learning a musical instrument, the structure of the brain changes in order to accommodate the new skill. Einstein is said to have an extra loop of brain matter developed when he learned to play the violin. I believe that if a person is unable to communicate through speech, it may be possible that another area of the brain may become more developed to compensate for or accommodate a new skill that might help them function, or an existing ability may become more developed such as the use of their senses. Blind people, for example, have a heightened sense of hearing and can learn to use echo-location to find their way around. Just throwing ideas around here.

 

[Bolletje]

1 in 10 people with ASD apparently have it. I know Nitro, moderator here, has Savant Syndrome.
I believe my ex girlfriend also had it.

You’re missing my point, I don’t think you need to be sharing your “discovery” with a forum full of people on the autism spectrum.
Many of us know people on the lower functioning part of the spectrum, some of us are LFA ourselves. Everyone on the spectrum lives life with autism everyday, so we’re very much aware of how wrong the general public tends to be about autism. That includes the misconception that we have hidden powers and/or talents.
Again, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but maybe consider what audience you want to pitch to, and what you’re trying to achieve.

 

[Misery]

You’re missing my point, I don’t think you need to be sharing your “discovery” with a forum full of people on the autism spectrum.
Many of us know people on the lower functioning part of the spectrum, some of us are LFA ourselves. Everyone on the spectrum lives life with autism everyday, so we’re very much aware of how wrong the general public tends to be about autism. That includes the misconception that we have hidden powers and/or talents.
Again, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but maybe consider what audience you want to pitch to, and what you’re trying to achieve.

You forget, perhaps, that this is a public forum meant initially as a resource for not just those with autism who have been dealing with it for a long time and are looking for a place to fit in, but also for those that dont understand it yet. Those who are very recently diagnosed and know next to nothing, those who are full of confusion, or those who are simply close to someone on the spectrum and dont understand a bloody thing. Topics like this are useful for those groups.

It's important to keep in mind that those of us who have known all this stuff for a long time are absolutely not the only ones here (and let's also not forget those who are here, but invisibly, being pure lurkers, so who knows how much knowledge someone in that position may or may not have). And frankly, even for those of us that have dealt with this for so long, there is always more to learn.

 

[Mr Allen]

It's true in these cases, and even with HFAs, concerning intelligence you can't tell a book by its cover. You never know what the right key might unlock.

Indeed, even though I'm Aspie, I could possibly win Mastermind

And you know Anne Hegarty, aka the Governess on the UK version of The Chase? Apparently she's Aspie, and she's one of THE cleverest women in the UK, although she has lost to good teams, for instance last Monday all 4 got through and won the final chase, and same last night.

 

[VioletHaze_03]

hmmm......i see what you're trying to say, but that isn't necessarily correct. some low functioning people may be able to think and form opinions like the rest of us, but i think you're forgetting that some people may have a maturity defecit. some auties may have the mental state of infants, and this may never go away. These people need help and support throught their entire lives, and it is doubtful that they will be able to function at the level an aspie does. It isn't their fault, and i'm not calling these people stupid or passing judgement on them, but sometimes the disability is so severe that you can't look past it. even though they may have wonderful personalities and be quite kind, i don't think a person with a condition that debilitating will ever be able to function without constant supervision and support. sometimes, there may be some auties who are perfectly capable of noticing the world around them, and can think for themselves well enough to be able to communicate (even if they are nonverbal) even though they may need as much support as someone who couldn't do this. However, this does not mean all low functioning people are mentally aware enough to communicate. if autism is truly a spectrum, each person should be judged on a case by case basis, and blanket statements like "the way we lFA is wrong" may not apply to every person on that spectrum.