Thursday Blog: Week Eleven

This quarter my topic was on whether or not fiction could accurately portray autism. To gain more knowledge on this subject I read a total of five books on a range of different topics. The first book I read was Marcelo in The Real World, which was about a boy named Marcelo who has autism. The second book I read was Wish, which followed a girl and her twin brother who had autism. The third book I read was The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time, which was also about a boy with autism. After that, I read The Rosie Project, which was about a man with autism. And finally, I read the book Ginny Moon which followed a young girl with autism. From the descriptions of the books, it is clear that books on autism tend to favor one portrayal of a person with autism, and that is a male on the high functioning end of the spectrum. This means that most the books will tell about a male age 10-18 who has some special gift and only seems slightly awkward in social situations.

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This 'ideal' of a super intelligent male with autism leads to expectations which are completely unrealistic. These books portray autism as a mere set back which hardly effects the person in their everyday life. By only showing the high functioning side of the spectrum, people with autism get grouped into a stereotype of being super intelligent and slightly socially awkward. When in fact autism effects everyone differently. For example there are three levels of autism ASD Level 1: “Requiring Support”,  ASD Level 2: “Requiring Substantial Support”,  ASD Level 3: “Requiring Very Substantial Support”. In most of the books I read the majority of the people fell under level one which is descried as difficulty initiating social interactions and clear examples of atypical or unsuccessful responses to social overtures of others. May appear to have decreased interest in social interactions. For example, a person who is able to speak in full sentences and engages in communication but whose to-and-fro conversation with others fails, and whose attempts to make friends are odd and typically unsuccessful. Only one of the books I read this quarter had a character with autism above level one which was Wish. He had what would be level three which is described as severe deficits in verbal and nonverbal social communication skills cause severe impairments in functioning, very limited initiation of social interactions, and minimal response to social overtures from others. For example, a person with few words of intelligible speech who rarely initiates interaction and, when he or she does, makes unusual approaches to meet needs only and responds to only very direct social approaches.

https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-are-the-three-levels-of-autism-260233

Overall based on the portrayal of characters with autism I would say fiction is not always a reliable source for reading about autism. If I had to recommend any of these books I would recommend Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig, Marcelo in The Real World by Francisco X. Stork , and  The Rosie Project by Melina Bellows because they were the most realistic and did not contain most of the stereotypes.

Sources:
          Rudy, Lisa Jo, and Joel Forman. “Making Sense of the 3 Levels of Autism.” Verywell Health, Verywellhealth, www.verywellhealth.com/what-are-the-three-levels-of-autism-260233.