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Town Hall
Exploring Autism (January 2010)
You read about three gifted people in this month's Muse, with one thing in common: their autism. Autistic kids can be shy and withdrawn, but their social awkwardness is sometimes disguising a brilliant mind. Do you have an autistic friend or sibling? Maybe you're autistic yourself! Why do you think that autism and genius often go hand-in-hand? Do you think that even autistic people who aren't geniuses have something to offer, too?
I think that autism is not a disease to be cured, but a difference to be embraced. I myself am autistic, and I know that many people with autism can sometimes find solutions and ideas in places others wouldn't think to look. I think we should accept people with autism for who they are.
(January 5, 2010 - 10:06 pm)
I agree, my neighbor's little sister has Asperger's Syndrome.. She is just a NORMAL little girl who doesn't really understand other people's feelings or control her own! you know before she went to kindergarten i got her to write her name! she was only four! (she didn't know what "R" looked like so I wrote one down for her to see, though. I WAS AT THAT LEVEL AND I WAS PRETTY BRIGHT!) she is just like any other girl her age she just has her own pace!
(January 13, 2010 - 10:37 am)
I completely agree. I Have Asperger's, and I was reading at 3.
(April 6, 2010 - 1:36 pm)
I have asperger's too and I am a total bookworm.
(July 9, 2010 - 10:06 am)
I think so too.
(January 16, 2010 - 5:02 pm)
My friend Connie's dad has Asperger's, and he acts like he doesn't even have it.
(October 17, 2010 - 12:39 pm)
I personally disagree. My 14-year old sister is autistic and it is very real for her and me. She has difficulty communicating and when doing so will lapse into a fairy tale or tv show, for they are familliar to her. It is painful for her and my whole family to live knowing she will have to be taken care of all her life. i have to be an older sister for my older sister.
(January 25, 2010 - 7:52 pm)
I am taking both sides because there are so many variations of autism. It's a whole spectrum, and looking at just on type is only one side of the story.
(March 19, 2010 - 6:35 pm)
I'm so sorry.
(June 14, 2010 - 2:20 pm)
You don't really have to disagree. There are many kinds of autism. Asperger's is the least troubling kind. Maybe she has a more advanced kind.
(June 17, 2010 - 5:34 pm)
I must say that I couldn't agree with you more!
(January 26, 2010 - 5:08 pm)
Like synthesesia? It's when your brain mixes up all your senses, so like maybe when you hear thunder you see gray rings. It varies from person to person. It's really not a disease or disorder at all...more like a unique gift.
(March 19, 2010 - 6:32 pm)
OMG!!!! is it bad if, when i hear a sound, i see a color for that sound???????????????????
(August 17, 2010 - 2:13 pm)
No, it is not bad! I think synesthesia would be amazing to have. However, if it causes difficulty in learning, then you might want to talk to your parents. But think. Would you be happy, complete, or yourself without it?
(December 3, 2010 - 6:40 pm)
I partly agree with you. Autism, in some forms, such as high functioning autistics can be completely beneficial for the person, allowing them to think creatively about problems that most people would pass of as impossible, or impractical. However, autism that cause the affected not to be able to talk, eat, or function is not a blessing. It is because of this we should look for ways to help autistics, but we should not generalize and say all autistics need to be normal. Only the ones who can't live on their own need help. Some autistics don't need anything changed about them, while others need all the help they can get.
(May 31, 2010 - 2:14 pm)
My flute teacher has a piano student who is autistic, and her mother always comes inside the room with her to the lesson. That might be wise, but we should start giving autistic people a chance to be alone with a few things that they do. This way, If they do something wrong by mistake, they can learn from it.
(January 11, 2010 - 8:44 pm)
Yeah, I agree with all of you.
(January 13, 2010 - 3:24 pm)
How can you agree with everyone?
(December 13, 2010 - 2:46 pm)
i think that it is not suprising how many autistic people are geniuses. they have a different way of looking at things and a different way of thinking and making judgments. even people that are not fully capable as a normal human can still give other humans ideas as to how things could be done or changed.
(January 23, 2010 - 6:25 pm)
I was horrified to see that at the bottom of page 17, it said that vaccines do not cause autism. There were actually several studies, not just one, some even by my father that suggest the vaccines are the cause. This caused my 14 year old sister's autism, which gives her difficulty communicating. This makes me have to be a big sister for my big sister. I cannot believe you would do this to me, Muse. Why? What made you neglect research? WHY??????
(January 25, 2010 - 8:01 pm)
I agree, I sure vaccine do cause Austism and a lot of other things too. I'm very glad I've never had a vaccine.
(January 31, 2010 - 6:19 pm)
Actually, it's pretty much one type of vaccine that may cause autism, and that only happens when given to very little kids (Think less than one year old), and that vaccine's been discontinued. So, there is very little reason to fear vaccines. It's due to media hype, and poor research that the terror about vaccines has occured.
Actually! No vaccines have been "discontinued." An ingredient called thimerosal was removed from vaccines around 2001 because it made people nervous, not because any major studies had linked it to autism. Separately, one small study claimed that the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine was connected to autism, but that study has been thoroughly discredited--and the journal that originally published it, called the Lancet, officially retracted the study just last month. --Ed.
(February 28, 2010 - 11:33 am)
Right, my Dad later corrected me on that. But, the point still stands.
(March 1, 2010 - 7:29 pm)
An autistic kid, Collin, goes to our school. He's actually very nice. His job in class is to hand out the lunch tickets for the people who buy hot lunch. He used to be not very nice about it, but now he hands them out nicely. He likes it when I play with him at recess. He likes to play Duck, Duck, Goose with me and some of my close friends. I think autistic kids can be very nice. (P.S. editors, thank you for putting in the article: "The Whole Spectrum". My teacher was talking about autism, and I asked if I could bring that article in, and she said yes! Thanks so much! I probably made her very happy with me!)
(January 29, 2010 - 9:30 pm)
I agree with both sides of the coin. I myself do not have autism but I do
have something called dysgraphia (and a.d.d.). these have been things I
have had to overcome. At times I have wished I didnt have these
"disabilities" (along with many others I have not listed), and at times
these "disabilities" have been the highlights of my life.
the summary of all that :-) is i agree with those of you screaming no it is terrible and also those saying it is a gift.
(February 1, 2010 - 1:45 pm)
My brother has autism. I wouldn't really call him gifted but... He's able to repeat all these commercials and media stuff. So I guess he has good memory. I think.
(February 20, 2010 - 9:15 pm)
There is not enough awareness of autism! There is a kid who sits in front of me on my bus and I am pretty sure he is autistic. The kid he sits next to is so mean to him. People need to know about autism.
(March 19, 2010 - 6:41 pm)
I think you're right... my cousin has autism as well, and recently I have noticed how little people know about it. They ask "What does he have?" or "What's wring with him?". Some people just can't accept the fact that even though he has autism, he is still a normal person, and he is still smart. I'm glad Muse did an article on this subject!
(July 6, 2010 - 6:39 am)
I think we should just accept people the way they are. I know a Swedish girl named Lisbeth. She has Asperger's, and she is not only one of the smartest people I know, she is very tough. She likes cheese and pickle sandwiches, and she has a wasp tattoo on her neck.
(May 21, 2010 - 6:10 pm)
I am a person with Asperger's and proud of it! I go to a gifted school, go to Lego League, and all in all feel pretty smart. I was voted class nerd in a nerd school, so that's a big accomplishment! I have three good friends at school, two of which are boys, and that is great because they like Pokemon, too, and I can brag freely about my level 100 Giratina without many stares. In Ohio, I have friends too. I just have some problems with being embarassed in public, embarassing other people in public, and getting angry at my siblings and other people. I also become easily obsessed with things, such as Pokemon and whatever favorite character I have at the moment. I wouldn't say I'm normal, because I'm not, in fact most people consider me insane (I take this as a compliment!). So this is Mango, Pokemon-obsessed-nerd-of-insane-craziness, signing off.
(June 8, 2010 - 3:42 pm)
My friend has Asperger's. I think that being a genius takes up a lot of brain space, so there's not enough room for other things.
(June 14, 2010 - 2:18 pm)
Such as sanity... except I think my mom was responsible for that in me. Her sanity gene is turned off.
(June 18, 2010 - 8:47 am)
she sounds cool.
(August 17, 2010 - 7:42 am)
i just want to say that autism is different in everyone who has it and different times it can have very different effects, so it shouldn't be used as such a general term.
(August 17, 2010 - 7:31 am)
there have been lots of people who have grown up with autism and aspergers but no one knew it, and they have still done well in school and gone to college and had a really normal life. and just because known that some one has autism shouldn't change their chances of that.
(August 17, 2010 - 7:39 am)
Einstein was autistic.
(That is, some people today guess that Einstein might have been autistic, but he was not diagnosed with autism while he was alive. --Ed.)
(August 17, 2010 - 2:19 pm)
I really liked the article on the kid with autism that had a sort of synesthesia condition, where numbers sound like somthing or sounds look like colors, that would be cool to experience to know how that feels
(November 23, 2010 - 5:15 pm)