Strange Son by Portia Iverson

[Jamies Mommy]

I'm reading the book Strange Son written by Portia Iverson, I'm only halfway through it but I must say I really admire how hard she worked to get Cure Autism Now started and I 'm kinda sad that it got "eaten" up by Autism Speaks.
I have met Tito and Soma many times and Jamie worked with Soma for a short time and I am amazed at all that woman has done.
I found it interesting that Tito who is non verbal and very autistic writes he thinks in words and Temple Grandin who is very verbal and high functioning says she thinks in pictures. I wonder if thats part of the difference between all low/ high functioning autistics?

[milivica]

In my opinion, no. Also, I hear tons and tons of nt's are picture thinkers too.

The difference between hfa and lfa (not including co occurring conditions that can make an hfa look like an lfa) is NOTHING.

More wiring....IN THE RIGHT PLACES makes the difference

Imagine your breaker box, that thing with all the electricity in the house going to it with breakers in it

Imagine your house's wiring is NT, all the wiring in the walls is connected to the breaker box

Imagine your house's wiring is HFA, you have 5 crucial wires too short to reach the breaker box...the wires are there, just need to 'grow' to reach the breaker box and connect

Imagine your house's wiring is LFA, you have 5 crucial wires even shorter than the HFA house...the wires are there, but need to 'grow' even further to reach the breaker box and connect

(I feel like the egg in the frying pan "this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs" commercial)

ABA, adds breakers to the breaker box. But neither in the case of the HFA or LFA houses will more breakers complete the circuit. RDI lengthens the stunted wiring - (stunted developmental milestones). RDI adds new wiring from the outlet or switch all the way to the breaker box.

Imagine a 5 year old who stopped developing emotionally in the areas of flexible thinking, self awareness, the ability to borrow another's perspective, communication, gaining episodic memories, etc....imagine he had never gained the ability to read body language or facial expression, but continued to develop in all the areas related to academics, athletics, ability to memorize, etc... and that is sort of an HFA, someone who is stunted in a few areas of development, but at age or brilliant in most other areas, and can often show it.

Imagine a 2 year old who stopped developing emotionally in the areas of flexible thinking, self awareness, the ability to borrow another's perspective, communication, gaining episodic memories, etc....imagine he had never gained the ability to read body language or facial expression, but continued to develop in all the areas related to academics, athletics, ability to memorize, etc... and that is sort of an LFA, someone who is stunted in a few areas of development, but at age or brilliant in most other areas, but will have more trouble than an hfa showing it usually, not just cause of more difficulty with communication but cause of even less ability than hfa's to imitate this external appearance so many folks with their noses in the air seem to value, like flapping or bursting sounds mean your less intelligent? Okaaaay. Don't think so!

Does that make sense? So if Vince for instance, comes out of the shower and stands there naked and dripping to tell me something while I'm in the kitchen (sighhhh) I totally understand just as I would with a 2 year old, that as I guide him to gain more self awareness or 'wiring' (not not not memorization that's a breaker! but the development of self awareness the wiring) he'll stop the naked stuff automatically, just as it does when your nt child gets older. You the parent, guide the child's development 'wiring', then the age appropriate behavior (the light turns on) happens naturally and automatically. Cause he'll get it, intrinsically, with more wiring in the self awareness area. Make sense? How to develop self awareness and flexible thinking and reciprocity and borrowing the perspective of others, etc etc etc which after doing so compliance and all the frosting on the cake comes naturally...that is RDI, that is why I'm so flipped out hellbent on sharing it.

Ok sorry, that was more than you asked.

:o Mili