Last weekend I went over to Liverpool to watch the touring production of the Curious incident of the dog in the night time. This is the theatre version of the book by Mark Haddon and is a story told through the eyes of a boy on the autism spectrum who sets out to investigate who killed his neighbour's dog, Wellngton.
It's an amazing, and very emotional, production - if you get the chance to go I highly recommend it. My only hesitation is, while it raises awareness of the autism spectrum, it may result in people believing that Christopher (the main character) represents all people on the autism spectrum. Back in 1989 when the film Rain Man was released, autism was very much an unknown condition. While the film, which was a massive box office hit, raised the profile of autism, it also led to the general public having a stereotypical image of a savant, someone with special abilities. Raymond, the character on the autism spectrum, had the ability to instantly count hundreds of objects at once, far beyond the normal range of human abilities.
Think about the other films and TV programmes that potentially have a character with AS. Not always explicit, for example Saga Noren in the Swedish/ Dutch series 'The Bridge' (recommend this for so many reasons) or Sherlock Holmes. These are programmes which, while fictional, show people with AS in a more positive light, they are not held back by their difficulties and their strengths are highlighted. There's an interesting article from the Telegraph titled 'Sherlock Holmes is autistic, leading charity claims' which expands on this.
Last year the BBC ran a series called 'The A Word' about the family of a 5 year old boy, Joe, who is diagnosed with autism. The programme focused on the emotions that the family went through while coming to terms with Joe's diagnosis, and while the programme was moving and again, brought the autism spectrum to mainstream television, I struggled with some of the finer detail. For example, Joe's parents were able to immediately get an appointment with a paediatrician who, within a week, gave a diagnosis of AS. Most families have a really long wait from first voicing their concerns to seeing a professional such as an educational psychologist, pediatrician or Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) before a diagnosis is made. In fact a study carried out in 2016 showed that parents wait, on average, 3 1/2 years before receiving an autism diagnosis for their child (a summary of the research is available here, or see the link to the full article below). I guess the programme would not have worked as well if Joe had to wait that long, but to me it felt like such a major part of the journey to diagnosis was skimmed over.
There are also an increasing number of documentaries being aired which highlight the diversity of the autism spectrum, some of which I've linked to in the Useful Resources section below.
Finally for this week, in April Sesame Street introduced a character called Julia, who is on the autism spectrum, and this feels like a positive step to introduce autism to children at a young age. It's just a shame that many of the characters we see in the media portray a stereotype. Alaina Leary writes in her article 'Autism on Television':
Useful Resources
Crane, L. et al. (2016) 'Experiences of autism diagnosis: A survey of over 1000 parents in the United Kingdom', Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 20(2), pp.153-162. (Universiy of Cumbria students can access the full article by clicking the link).
Documentaries:
Channel 4 (2015) Born Naughty?
ITV (2017) Girls with autism
BBC (2017) Richard and Jaco: Life with autism
Contact:
If you have any queries or concerns over the Summer you can contact me directly at lesley.english@cumbria.ac.uk
For general queries relating to the peer mentoring scheme contact peermentoring@cumbria.ac.uk
I look forward to meeting you all in September.
Last year the BBC ran a series called 'The A Word' about the family of a 5 year old boy, Joe, who is diagnosed with autism. The programme focused on the emotions that the family went through while coming to terms with Joe's diagnosis, and while the programme was moving and again, brought the autism spectrum to mainstream television, I struggled with some of the finer detail. For example, Joe's parents were able to immediately get an appointment with a paediatrician who, within a week, gave a diagnosis of AS. Most families have a really long wait from first voicing their concerns to seeing a professional such as an educational psychologist, pediatrician or Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) before a diagnosis is made. In fact a study carried out in 2016 showed that parents wait, on average, 3 1/2 years before receiving an autism diagnosis for their child (a summary of the research is available here, or see the link to the full article below). I guess the programme would not have worked as well if Joe had to wait that long, but to me it felt like such a major part of the journey to diagnosis was skimmed over.
Finally for this week, in April Sesame Street introduced a character called Julia, who is on the autism spectrum, and this feels like a positive step to introduce autism to children at a young age. It's just a shame that many of the characters we see in the media portray a stereotype. Alaina Leary writes in her article 'Autism on Television':
"Because while I'm happy that people have a character they can relate to on screen, I'm also disappointed that it's always via the same traits, namely trouble understanding sarcasm coupled with an intense, bordering on obsessive, love of science. The best autistic characters would mirror real people, not a set of diagnostic criteria. They would be as diverse and different as the real life autistic community is".
Crane, L. et al. (2016) 'Experiences of autism diagnosis: A survey of over 1000 parents in the United Kingdom', Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 20(2), pp.153-162. (Universiy of Cumbria students can access the full article by clicking the link).
Documentaries:
Channel 4 (2015) Born Naughty?
ITV (2017) Girls with autism
BBC (2017) Richard and Jaco: Life with autism
Contact:
If you have any queries or concerns over the Summer you can contact me directly at lesley.english@cumbria.ac.uk
For general queries relating to the peer mentoring scheme contact peermentoring@cumbria.ac.uk
I look forward to meeting you all in September.
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