Mental Health
Andrea Sanchez
Professor Amanda Gray & Adrienne Baldwin
SWU 171
23 June 2013 Mental Health and the Media
Let me start off with what Autism is and how common it is. Autism appears to have its root in very early brain development. The most obvious signs of autism and symptoms come about between 2 and 3 years old. “An estimated 1 out of 54 boys and 1 in 252 girls are diagnosed with autism in the United States.” A person with autism will find it much harder to understand the feelings of other people. A person with autism will usually finds sudden loud noises unpleasant and quite shocking. A person with autism likes predictability. Routine is his/her best friend. Forcing, them to accept change like others do could adversely affect their quality of life. His/her cognitive skills may develop rapidly while their motor skills don’t. They may not be able to catch a ball as well as other children but could have a much larger vocabulary. How quickly a child with autism learns things can be unpredictable. It is crucial that the Myth- autistic people have no feelings- is destroyed. The myth is a result of ignorance not some type of conspiracy. Not all people with autism have an incredible gift or savantism for numbers or music.
I chose the movie “Fly Away” because I wanted to learn more about the life of an autistic daughter. This movie was definitely an unsentimental look at the complex codependency between a single mother and her severely autistic daughter. People with special needs are portrayed as difficult to work with. In this movie the main focus was on the autistic daughter who just wouldn’t behave in school. Mandy was always getting in trouble because she would get out of hand and harm other students. Mandy’s father was even annoyed and frustrated with the type of daughter he had. Yes, the portrayal did fit with what I have learned about the population. An autistic person most likely will have trouble learning the meaning of words. Doing the same thing
Professor Amanda Gray & Adrienne Baldwin
SWU 171
23 June 2013 Mental Health and the Media
Let me start off with what Autism is and how common it is. Autism appears to have its root in very early brain development. The most obvious signs of autism and symptoms come about between 2 and 3 years old. “An estimated 1 out of 54 boys and 1 in 252 girls are diagnosed with autism in the United States.” A person with autism will find it much harder to understand the feelings of other people. A person with autism will usually finds sudden loud noises unpleasant and quite shocking. A person with autism likes predictability. Routine is his/her best friend. Forcing, them to accept change like others do could adversely affect their quality of life. His/her cognitive skills may develop rapidly while their motor skills don’t. They may not be able to catch a ball as well as other children but could have a much larger vocabulary. How quickly a child with autism learns things can be unpredictable. It is crucial that the Myth- autistic people have no feelings- is destroyed. The myth is a result of ignorance not some type of conspiracy. Not all people with autism have an incredible gift or savantism for numbers or music.
I chose the movie “Fly Away” because I wanted to learn more about the life of an autistic daughter. This movie was definitely an unsentimental look at the complex codependency between a single mother and her severely autistic daughter. People with special needs are portrayed as difficult to work with. In this movie the main focus was on the autistic daughter who just wouldn’t behave in school. Mandy was always getting in trouble because she would get out of hand and harm other students. Mandy’s father was even annoyed and frustrated with the type of daughter he had. Yes, the portrayal did fit with what I have learned about the population. An autistic person most likely will have trouble learning the meaning of words. Doing the same thing
Citations: 1. www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism 2. kidshealth.org