Comments on: How to Understand Autism

on 1/9/2008 Although I found this article interesting, I found the wording to be very depressing and not uplifting. My son has been diagnosed with Autism. And if I had read this to learn more (earlier when I did not understand it yet) I would have been pretty frustrated. Autism can be wonderful, and in my case that is my son. And we have lots of help. So did not like this overall.

on 3/8/2006 Autistic people are different and some are retarded, but labeling them all as retarded is unfair.

on 1/27/2006 My family members believe I was autistic as a child, that is I would avoid contact with others, I would spend time caring more for things than people. I did not understand normal childhood toys, and often I would spend time doing some strange things they did not understand. In school I was a slow learner, not understanding complex subjects, I would do it my own way. I did not like to participate in group activities as I did not understand the group rules. I would be called a failure or loser. Today as an adult, I look back on my childhood as an unhappy time when I did not fit in. I also suffer from Epilepsy that was not diagnosed until I was 35 years old. I still have problems thinking, or relating to others, talking was never a problem but what I said was not always understood. I tend not to think in words but symbolic language. Obviously I learned to read and write, but for me the basics were not easy. My grades were always quite low, math 9 and 10 were impossible. PE was very difficult in high school as I had no experience in the normal games people play. I had one teacher that would try to make me learn to catch a softball by hitting them to me with a bat. They just hit me instead; the teacher seemed not to care. I have a lot of anger today because of what people did to me. Thank God I have not acted on it and hurt anyone else in that way.

on 11/22/2005 Another good starting point is "Through The Eyes Of Aliens." Also, any autobiography by an autistic person will add to your knowledge of autism. www.autistics.org has a list of books by autistics.

on 11/22/2005 Learn about autism from autistic people themselves. There's a large and lively autistic community on the internet. Try http://www.ani.ac or http://www.autistics.org as starting points. Autistic people *don't* see autism the way autism "experts" do.