taking steps

argh. i just woke up from a 5-hour nap.

i feel so guilty.


anyway. today i sat in for an autism seminar which the HELP organised thru very disoriented but staggering effort by handful of people, namely Dexter and Edward.
there were like, 50 seats for people to listen in, but there were 3 listeners. all of them which who opted to help this event going. (myself included.)

We HAVE done some marketing, mainly in the DSA. majority of people are willing to pay RM2 for charity, but none of them wanted to listen to a presentation of autism.
I can understand, as I never would have listened in as well. Who would find them interesting? i mean, charity events are bound to be filled with boring.

this perception was wrong.

The talk, although received by a very small amount of listeners, was very informative and inspiring. the presenter was a psychologist, a big, scary Chinese man but he was very passionate about his role in promoting knowledge in autism.


Basically, people with autism have a common problem which is communication and social skill deficiency. they would be receiving what you would say, but they process in a different method, and the output would also be different.
it is difficult for them, to socialise in our standards because they encode social behaviour differently.
the social defects are usually accompanied by sensory defects such as touch, smell, hearing, and sight etc.
some of them, would have amazing gifts of art or mathematics, as they exhibit supernormal level of concentration on their area of interest.

examples of an autistic person the presenter gave, was a 16-year old who would constantly scream, when he is not in proximity of his mother. for him, screaming is the only social activity he understands, as people respond best when he screams.
there was also, this high-scholar who threw a chair out the window from a classroom to get the teacher to stop nagging at him.

for them, it is the logical way of things. scream, and you get the message across, throw things, and people will shut up.


as i listened to those cases, i felt that sometimes, it is our- normal people's fault that autistic people cannot cope socially with us.
we live in a very illogical world. lots of things we do or forced to do, are not explained to us. the society we have created are so far from logic, that we have some people who cannot cope with the rigid framework of "normal".



if we were to directly translate Chinese (and Japanese) translation of "autism", it would be "self-closure syndrome". we perceive them as they are in a world of their own, or living in a secluded island.

in the real fact, it is a crude description to use, as they are genuinely not in their island. they can listen, and they may be equally as intelligent as us, it is just that they fail in the complex and illogical social skills we possess.

if we were to stop and ask them literally what they think of something, they will respond. however if not, they will try and communicate through their own limited communicative method, may it violence or screaming.



i felt it was interesting to know these things, as I felt that the current situation of this autistic people presents to us the faults of this society. the sheer complexity and illogical nature of our communication.

most of the time, we "normal" people tend to ask the "different" people may it autistic people, foreign people, or the other sex to understand us rather than to understand them more.

I think communication cannot be achieved if you just expect the other person, or anything, to take steps towards us. we have to take as much steps as they do. i feel it is necessary, out of respect.


and I need to learn how to take steps. i feel that sometimes, i am not taking as much steps as others do to me, and by knowing more about autism, i have come to think of that.




Edward and Dexter feels that their work is not receiving much appreciation, which is true, but you changed my perception to things thru this talk. it may not be much, but i appreciate that.