Movies/Books

ASD IN MOVIES/BOOKS

As you may or may not know, the whole reason I chose "Living with an Autistic Brother" as my topic for this project was because the book: "The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night-time" by Mark Haddon. In this book, Christopher (our protagonist) is a teenage boy who has Asperger's Syndrome. The book is based around Christopher's life and the way he thinks. This was only one of the two media forms that involved a character with an Autism Spectrum Disorder that I had encountered.

The other being the movie: "The Black Balloon" which is an Australian film directed by Elissa Down. The basic synopsis from Wikipedia: "Fifteen-year-old Thomas Mollison and his family move to a new home in the early 1990s. He is anxious because he has to start at a new school, and make new friends - all he wants is to do is fit in and be regarded in the same way as everyone else. However, it seems he struggles to achieve this goal. Although his family appears to be a fairly happy one, Thomas often feels isolated; it seems as if his mother only dotes upon his brother, Charlie, and does not pay any attention to him. Thomas, however, is devoted to his brother and shows affection for him. Charlie is Thomas's older brother who lives with autism, as well as Attention Deficit Disorder." (x) This movie definitely connected with me mainly because of what Thomas (the sibling) goes through. I remember there's a scene in the movie where Thomas ends up crying in the bathroom late at night because of his conflicted feelings about Charlie's disorder. Sometimes I find myself thinking about that which only leaves me with a strange feeling of extreme guilt because Dong can't help the fact that he has Autism. The movie is definitely something that expresses the life with living with an autistic family member is like. I recommend you all see it because it'll help you understand and shed a few tears.

Thanks for reading,

Byeee

Time

TIME

Living with an autistic brother sometimes requires the best organization skills within the family. There are places to get to. There are appointments to attend with speech pathologists, therapists etc. A lot of family time can be spent in the car or in waiting rooms. Sometimes, even as the sibling the blank walls of a waiting room can get annoying.

A lot of time has to be given so Dong can go his speech therapy sessions and it's my parents that take him there. They sacrifice a big part of their day caring for Dong and making sure that he's okay and that he is progressing well. Sometimes, I try to pitch in say about half an hour to an hour each night just to sit with him or ask him about what he did at Kinder or at his speech session. But as the work load of being at the higher level of high school becomes heavier and more important, trying to find time for that is tough.

Maybe that's something for all siblings as well. Especially with younger ones, where time has to be managed and organized so that there is time for us to talk and be social with each other.



Thanks for reading
Bye

Knowledge

KNOWLEDGE

In 2002, one in 250 children were diagnosed with Autism. In 2012, those numbers have changed to one in 88 children children being diagnosed. As a result, people have now heard the word 'autism' more often, but some don't really know what that means. The increasing number of diagnosis means that there is a higher chance that someone might know or is related to a person that is diagnosed under the Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Before my brother was born, I had never heard of the word autism let alone knew what it meant. It wasn't until my brother was three that the word became familiar and I had gained knowledge about the disorder. We had studied a book called 'The Curious Incident of the dog in the night time' in English that year and that novel was about a boy who had Aspergers Syndrome. He was our protagonist and we went on a journey with him about his life with his dad, and his ups and downs as to finding out more about why his mother left him. This was my first ever interaction in the area under theAutism Spectrum.

Autism falls under the Autism Spectrum umbrella, which also includes Aspergers, PDD-NOS, childhood disintegrative disorder and Rett syndrome. Autism (along with the others) usually effects the development of a child/person. An easier way to see it is, everything is completely the same, it's just their brains are 'wired differently'. 

For me personally, I'd like to think that a lot more people in today's society would be more accepting of this disorder because of the increase in diagnosis. And that's a comforting thought in a way because it means that more people will eventually learn more about Autism and be more aware of it. That's probably something really selfish to say but I'd just like people to understand the disorder and maybe that's what I'm trying to get it. I want more people to gain knowledge and pass on knowledge so the world could be educated.


Thanks for reading
Byeeee