(Warning: this may be a tear jerker, I cried towards the end of writing this)
April is Autism Awareness Month and although it is coming to an end, I think it's still important to get my word out there. (It's been brought to my attention that Autism Awareness Month is heavily linked with an organisation called 'Autism Speaks' who do not support Autism - ASAN or NAS on the other hand are good charities who really do help)
I have a few things to talk about in regards to Autism so allow me to start things off with a question that can often be heavily asked but hard to answer.
What Is Autism?
The Dictionary definition is as follows: 'A mental condition, present from early childhood, characterized by great difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract concepts.'
Now, I don't know much about Autism or what is known as the Autistic Spectrum but I do know that everyone's experience and diagnosis is different and it's from that view point that this post is written...and with that in mind, if there is any autistic people reading this post that find anything about it incorrect or offensive, please do not hesitate to leave a comment correcting me...I would love to know more about autism and how it has affected different people, but without further a do, let me continue.
I recently came across a video of Daniel Blixa Reed singing a song that he had written called 'Life on The Spectrum' and felt it was appropriate to include it in this post as it shows someone's experience with autism and the lyrics are quite hard hitting, so here it is:
This song helped me to understand more about 'The Spectrum' and how it can sometimes feel to be labeled as something that is unfortunately not always accepted into the world we live in.
As you may know, I am a very keen watcher of TV and when a new programme came up on BBC1 called 'The A Word', I was instantly drawn in by the name, what I wasn't expecting was it to be a drama about a family coming to terms with a young boy's diagnosis of Autism...I have really got in to this show and have even been driven to tears by some of the more emotional scenes, again, I do not know how true to life it is, but as a Media student I do know that The BBC prides itself on being Accurate & Reliable so I'd like to think that it is well researched. For anyone like me, who is particularly interested in Development Disorders and it's affect on the individual and those around them, I would highly recommend this show as it was one of the major reasons as to why I decided to write this post. Here is a link to iPlayer where the programme will soon not be available, so be quick: The A Word
Another of the main reasons that I decided to write this post was because of a trip I recently took to Austria, now, those of you familiar with the way my blog works will know that I always write a post to go with my videos, but I have not put one up with my most recent video, which was about my ski trip, this is partly because that video needs to be changed slightly but also because I wanted this post to be paired with it but I was not ready to post this at that time as I wanted this to be perfect...Anyway, back to the point, I recently went on a Skiing trip with my school, Cowes Enterprise College, to Austria where we were joined by another school run by the husband of the lady who ran our trip (Mark & Lindsay Hughes respectively). Mark is the head teacher of St. Johns School, St. John’s specialises in autism and autistic spectrum conditions, but more generally in a wide range of complex learning disabilities and emotional, behavioural and social difficulties. We were joined by 5 students from St. Johns who all became very good friends within hours to a point where it was extremely hard to tell that they were any different from us, they were all such nice, genuine, funny and hugely talented people that were so lovely to be around for the week.
As you may know, I am a very keen watcher of TV and when a new programme came up on BBC1 called 'The A Word', I was instantly drawn in by the name, what I wasn't expecting was it to be a drama about a family coming to terms with a young boy's diagnosis of Autism...I have really got in to this show and have even been driven to tears by some of the more emotional scenes, again, I do not know how true to life it is, but as a Media student I do know that The BBC prides itself on being Accurate & Reliable so I'd like to think that it is well researched. For anyone like me, who is particularly interested in Development Disorders and it's affect on the individual and those around them, I would highly recommend this show as it was one of the major reasons as to why I decided to write this post. Here is a link to iPlayer where the programme will soon not be available, so be quick: The A Word
Another of the main reasons that I decided to write this post was because of a trip I recently took to Austria, now, those of you familiar with the way my blog works will know that I always write a post to go with my videos, but I have not put one up with my most recent video, which was about my ski trip, this is partly because that video needs to be changed slightly but also because I wanted this post to be paired with it but I was not ready to post this at that time as I wanted this to be perfect...Anyway, back to the point, I recently went on a Skiing trip with my school, Cowes Enterprise College, to Austria where we were joined by another school run by the husband of the lady who ran our trip (Mark & Lindsay Hughes respectively). Mark is the head teacher of St. Johns School, St. John’s specialises in autism and autistic spectrum conditions, but more generally in a wide range of complex learning disabilities and emotional, behavioural and social difficulties. We were joined by 5 students from St. Johns who all became very good friends within hours to a point where it was extremely hard to tell that they were any different from us, they were all such nice, genuine, funny and hugely talented people that were so lovely to be around for the week.
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| From Left: Alex Fisher, Sammy Basford(Top, From Cowes), Daryl Webster(Bottom), Myself, Charlie Ries-Coward, Josh Phillips and Charlie Bennett. |
These five people showed me that it really doesn't matter who you are, where you come from or what your story is, but that it's the person who you make yourself that matters and these guys taught me so much about themselves and myself that I will keep with me for the rest of my life.
Thank you to every single one of these great people, and thankyou for taking the time to read this post, Please take this opportunity to spend as little as 10 minutes to go and find out more about Autism or another development disorder because it really pays to know about these things.
My final thought, which stems from a note that I was given about this post is that Autism is no longer something that needs awareness...it's now something that needs acceptance and through my experiences it is so easy to accept those with development disorders and I think that you should do the same.
Until Next Time,
Stay Happy,
Meet Some Incredible People,
And Goodbye.
Mitch xx
P.S. If you would like to support St. Johns, which I would love you to do as I've seen the incredible young people they support, you can...They have a just giving page which I will leave here for you
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