Today's podcast is about autism, which is so much in the news lately. I am interviewing my daughter Megan about her son Adam (almost 6), who has a diagnosis of autism.
http://audio.ancientfaith.com/frederica/fhn_2008-06-05.mp3 Her toddler Michael was sitting on her lap, and tries to get into the conversation. When the recorder, with its foam ball windscreen, comes his way, he tries to take a bite out of it. I wrote a column about Adam and autism for Beliefnet a year or so ago, and was blessed by the response. I have become convinced that this is a genuine increase, and not just better diagnosis; school teachers tell me that they are definitely seeing more of these children than they used to. I wonder what life will be like when they become adults, 20 years from now, and we are encountering them everywhere. "Loving a Child with Autism"<http://www.frederica.com/writings/loving-a-child-with-autism.html> <http://www.frederica.com/writings/loving-a-child-with-autism.html>Temple Grandin, a woman with autism, has written some terrific books about what it is like for her, and in particular how it provides her with a mind she thinks is more like an animal's, which enables her to understand animals. I particularly liked her book, "Animals in Translation."<http://books.google.com/books?id=az0fszrRaiQC&dq=animals+in+translation&pg=PP1&ots=UHoACuso4z&sig=0T3CGL5IKn7U8hJ9mkHpB7q-OIQ&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fq%3Danimals%2Bin%2Btranslation%26ie%3Dutf-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26client%3Dfirefox-a&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail#PPP1,M1>(You can read some of the book at that link.) Oliver Sacks is a neurologist and an author who writes with compassion about his patients with autism, brain injury, and other conditions. In "An Anthropologist on Mars"<http://www.amazon.com/Anthropologist-Mars-Seven-Paradoxical-Tales/dp/0679756973> he profiles 7 of his patients, including Temple Grandin and other autists. (Most interesting to me: a surgeon with Tourette's!) ******** Frederica Mathewes-Green www.frederica.com
_______________________________________________ Frederica-l mailing list *** Please address all replies to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** You can check your subscription information here: http://lists.ctcnet.net/mailman/listinfo/frederica-l
