Heilker and Yergeau Response

SUMMARY:
In their article, Hailker and Yergeau give detailed accounts of how autism is misunderstood in today's society. There are personal narratives from the views of a parent of a child with autism. There are thoughts by a college graduate who tried to change the way others thought of autistic people. In their article they call to attention the connection between autism and rhetoric.

SYNTHESIS: 3
I think that this article ties to Queer Texts, Queer Context by Malinowitz. In her article she talks about how the gay community is misunderstood much like the way people with autism are. Much like how there is little research about what autism stems from we know very little about homosexuality as well. Another article this ties to is McCloud's. In his article he talks about how people don't always see you as you see yourself. This ties in with how the student with autism did not see his autism as a disability and people who have it "puzzling  individuals" like the founders of the Autism Awareness Foundation do. And finally it ties to the articles by Murray and Berkenkotter, where people with autism sometimes can not explain what they need to say, they have trouble communicating when their thoughts can not transition properly, it does not mean they are not intelligent and capable of thought though. In Murray and Berkenkotter they mention the "incubation of thought", maybe someone with autism may be struggling with an idea, they are not incompetitent, rather they are letting it develop more so.

DIALECTICAL NOTEBOOK: 6

RESPONSE:	QUOTE:
There is no way to learn how it is caused or a cure. Much like other scientific mysteries we must do more research and understand the people with autism better before we figure out the condition.	We do not yet know what causes autism. 261
It appears that they focus on the negative aspects of autism. They talk about how most people do not have social skills and can not develop them. Which is not true and they should promote more positive parts of the condition.	The National Institute of Health defines autism as "a spectrum that encompasses a wide range of behavior" but whose "common features include impaired social interactions, impaired verbal and nonverbal communication, and restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior." 262
This quote is talking about how sometimes when a person with autism is thinking or talking about something, their process can become disrupted because of crossed wires in their brains. It does not mean that they are stupid, it means it takes them a little longer to develop a full thought.	Sometimes, he notes, "different portions of invention try to move simultaneously into structure and style" and two or more inventive sets try "to be known through one sequence of structure and style." 264
This makes itself relevant with the way that people used to study, with copying and repetition  Why is it such a problem now? People find this odd because people with autism repeat the same thing over and over again.	Let us consider, for instance, echolalia, a characteristic kind of language use among autistics, in which they repeat stock words and phrases verbatim that they have other speakers use. 265
I hate that it says that people with autism do not have empathy or are incapable of developing it. Many people with the condition can learn to understand feelings eventually, it is much like any child, they do not understand that touching a hot stove will burn them until they either conduct an experiment or are instructed not to do so by a parent.	Empathy- a loaded worded in autism discourse, a characteristic that autistics are said to lack- presumes that one can be so in tune with another person as to actually understand that person's emotional state, to even perhaps vicariously experience it. 265
This quote is personable to myself. Although I do not have autism, I do have times when I am with people where there is a comfortable silence between us where I do not feel the need to speak and ruin the quiet. I do not know if others can relate to this quote as well as I but I can.	In other words, rather than being some kind of deficit or delay or withdrawal, rather than signifying his entrapment, frustration, depression, or loneliness, his silence signifies his contentment, his satisfaction, his fully realized development, and his fully successful rhetoric. 267

THOUGHTS: 5
I enjoyed this article. It opened my eyes to how even people with the illness do not always see it as an illness. I think that researchers should be more accepting of what people with autism really think of themselves and their condition rather than be scientific and have no emotion for the individual. I learned more about how their brains work. I did not know much about autism, but I feel much more educated in the field. This article has the set up of our Project 2 in a way.