What are Sundays for

I think my Sundays are my thoughtful days.  Some people take their Sundays and attend church or rest or whatever they choose.  I seem to like to think.  This is the day that I watch most of my documentaries.  Sometimes I watch PBS.  Today I watched 2 sets of PBS's Nova Science Now.  I actually saw this one about how smart animals were.  I have been a fan of all kinds of animals for some time.  This one talk about drawing parallels between how animals learn and how people learn.  It was interesting and I am curious to see where science goes with this.


I saw another Nova Science Now show that had as one of the pieces a story about the scientists that are doing research to find the gene that causes Autism.  As I have stated in an earlier blog I don't know much about this particular disability.  When I speak to people such as students or any kind of public speaking,  I talk about disability in general since my main goal is to get people to look and think and teach outside of the social misjudgements known as stereotypes.  Occasionally though I do get questions that are specific to disability.  I then have to say that I don't have much experience with autism specifically.  I am sure I have worked with people who are autistic.  In my last job we never cared much about diagnosis.  My general rule of thumb is get to know the individual.  I was very excited to see what was going on in research about autism.  This piece did not disappoint me. 

This story started like most stories about disability do.  It started with a boy and his family.  When this boy was born he appeared not to be disabled.  This is very typical for children with autism.   Around the age of one he stopped looking at people in the eye.  After that he stopped speaking.  The diagnosis of autism was devastating.  But this family refused to give up or take the status quo.  She found scientists on her own willing to help research this.  The family helped collect blood samples from 1000 people with autism.  She found a scientist that isolated the gene for predicting Alzheimer's.  He is now working on finding the differences in the genes of people with autism.  The scientists have found out that if one child has autism a sibling is likely to have autism.  People with autism have missing genes and or mutated genes that may have an affect on development and behavior.  People with autism lack the ability to decipher social cues.

My favorite part was near the end of this story.  The parents had gotten their son supports and he began to use a letter board to communicate.  They found out he was highly intelligent and could answer most any question of a boy of his age.  He could also read.  When they figured out thir son could communicate, his parents asked him "What were you doing in there all this time?"  His answer was "Listening"    Never assume someone who can't speak isn't listening.  Always think outside the box even if you must work inside one to get things done.  Hooray for people who don't take no for an answer.  Sometimes it is the only way to accomplish your goals.  Have a good night take care