Too Busy Living It
I remember years ago a friend asking me if I planned to watch a new show on television called “The Good Doctor”. She thought I may be interested because it portrayed a character on the autism spectrum. When I looked into the premise of the show, I found that the autistic character was the doctor.
I chose at the time not to watch the show. I have been working on limiting my television time, so try not to start too many new series. I might have been more interested if I thought I could learn something from the show that would help me parent my own autistic child.
The doctor, Shaun Murphy, is autistic and is diagnosed with savant syndrome. The Encyclopedia Brittanica defines savant syndrome as a “rare condition wherein a person of less than normal intelligence or severely limited emotional range has prodigious intellectual gifts in a specific area. Mathematical, musical, artistic, and mechanical abilities have been among the talents demonstrated by savants. Examples include performing rapid mental calculations of huge sums, playing lengthy musical compositions from memory after a single hearing, and repairing complex mechanisms without training. About 10 percent of autistic people exhibit savant syndrome and are known as autistic savants”.
Per the article, “What Makes an Autistic Person a Savant?”, by Lisa Jo Rudy at www.verywellhealth.com, “An autistic savant, according to Darold A. Treffert, MD of the University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, is someone with autism who also has a single extraordinary area of knowledge or ability. According to Treffert, "As many as one in ten persons with autistic disorder have such remarkable abilities in varying degrees, although savant syndrome occurs in other developmental disabilities or in other types of central nervous system injury or disease as well. Whatever the particular savant skill, it is always linked to massive memory.
It’s important to note that “savants” and “talented autistic people” are not the same thing. There are many autistic people with ordinary talents—but savant syndrome is rare and extreme. In other words, a person with autism who is able to calculate well, play an instrument, or otherwise present himself as highly capable is not by definition a savant.”
Some of you may remember the movie, “Rain Man” from 1988 starring Dustin Hoffman as Raymond Babbitt. Hoffman won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the film won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Writing and Best Director. Per www.appliedbehavioranalysisedu.org, “Babbitt was based on real life autistic savant Kim Peek. Many of Babbitt’s apparently extraordinary skills were taken from genuine talents that Peek exhibited.
Although its depiction was true to life for Peek, the movie was so popular that it did have some unwanted side effects for the ASD community: many viewers came to believe that all people with autism were also savants, which is far from the case!”
“Temple Grandin” is another movie that portrays an autistic savant. Per Wikipedia.com, “Temple Grandin is a 2010 American biographical drama television film directed by Mick Jackson and starring Claire Danes as Temple Grandin, an autistic woman whose innovations revolutionized practices for the humane handling of livestock on cattle ranches and slaughterhouses. It is based on Grandin's memoirs Emergence and Thinking in Pictures. The film premiered on HBO on February 6, 2010, and won several awards including five Primetime Emmy Awards, and Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild prizes for Danes.”
Have you seen the television show, “The Big Bang Theory? While researching for this blog article, Sheldon and Amy, two of the characters on the show come up in a list of television characters with Asperger’s. Asperger’s was a previously used diagnosis on the autism spectrum. In 2013 it became part of one umbrella diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It falls under (HFA), high functioning autism unaccompanied by intellectual disability.
Some of the symptoms include impairment in social interaction, restricted patterns of behavior, activities and interests, and intense preoccupation with a particular subject. Both Sheldon and Amy show Asperger-like behaviors. During the show itself, ASD is never brought up. Jim Parsons, the actor that plays Sheldon, thinks that Sheldon shows behaviors that are often associated with people with Asperger Syndrome. In fact, he has stated that his performance as the character has been influenced by a memoir written by John Elder Robinson, an active member of the autism rights movement who has worked with KISS, Milton Bradley Company, Simplex, and ISOREG in a wide range of careers. As a result, it is no wonder that there is such an enormous number of people who believe that Sheldon has Asperger Syndrome.
Sheldon is a theoretical physicist possessing a B.S., M.S., M.A., PhD, ScD, has an IQ 0f 187 and has a photographic memory. Amy is a neuroscientist with a PhD. Both characters are highly intelligent.
There is another television show called, “Atypical”, on Netflix. It focuses on the life of an 18-year-old, Sam, on the autism spectrum. Sam is on the quest to find love, he has a job, and attends college.
I mentioned in a previous blog that Travis started DJ lessons. I shared with the businessowner that Travis was autistic. After one session with Travis, he called me to learn more about Travis so that he could better meet his needs. He commented that Travis being on the spectrum was not at all what he was expecting. The businessowner said that Travis was nothing like what he saw autism portrayed like on television.
Per www.appliedbehavioranalysisedu.org, “Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) isn’t always easy to understand for anyone who hasn’t been immediately exposed to it. Like other phenomena, many people become familiar with ASD through the way the disorder is depicted in television and movies.
Of course, not all TV shows or movies are created equal. There are good and bad portrayals of both people with ASD and with the effects the disorder has on their families and lives. The bad portrayals verge on caricature and plant wildly misleading perspectives in people’s heads… the good ones improve understanding and spread empathy for both those with ASD and the caregivers and family members who deal with the disorder.”
The movies and shows I highlighted above are all good portrayals. But they weigh heavily on the side of incredible intellectual gifts.
Travis has a significant intellectual disability. Add to that his chronic mental health challenges. A show that included that side of autism would be hard to watch. People like to watch TV to escape from the hardships of life. Travis’s life is hard. Plain and simple.
I know I wouldn’t watch that show. I am too busy living it.
Now HGTV, that’s another story! I now have all these ideas for our new deck. Tracy says he is going to put parental controls on that channel!
“I’m too busy working on my own grass to notice if yours is greener.” - Author Unknown
“Life is amazing. And then it is awful. And then it is amazing again. And in between the amazing and the awful, it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That’s just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it’s breathtakingly beautiful.” - Author Unknown