what doe's autistic mean?

Question

Toni Braxton startled and moved fans in a recent concert at the Flamingo in Las Vegas when she broke down in tears, discussing her autistic son.
"She was dedicating I Wanna Be (Your Baby)' to her son, and then she said something about how people have warned her that she shouldn't talk about it, but said that he was autistic, and then she started crying and rushed off stage, says a source. "It was very emotional."
Braxton's rep didn't return a call, but fans have been writing Braxton in support.

Answer 1

I've used a modified version of this answer around Yahoo Answers before, so you may have seen it already. I'm autistic, and will use "we" to describe the rest of the autistic community and I. I'm not trying to imply that you're on the autistic spectrum. I also recommend reading writing by other autistics for more information.

Being autistic means that one has a neurological configuration different from the norm (those of us in the autistic community call non-autistics neurotypicals or NTs) known as autism. It doesn't mean that one is wired defectively, just differently.

Our senses are different from NT senses: we tend to be either hypo- or hyper- sensitive to sensory stimuli of different sorts, have an increased incidence of synesthesia (a crossing between senses, to use an example from my experience, the ring of a telephone looks like a red spiraling corkscrew), have difficulty parsing speech (central auditory processing disorder), hear pitches that most people can't, and have difficulty reading text because of various visual processing issues collectively known as Irlen Syndrome. (Those aren't all of the sensory oddities autistics can have, just a few of the most common.) Some of our sensory sensitivities can put us at a disadvantage in a society designed for NTs - for example, many of us can see fluorescent flicker, which can result in anything from minor irritation, to headaches, to falling asleep. We do something called stimming, which includes things like flapping our hands, rocking back and forth, listening to the same piece of music repeatedly, and jumping up and down. This allows us to deal with sensory stimuli so that we don't become overloaded, and also lets us get the extra stimulation we may need. Lots of NTs try to stop us from stimming, but while bigots may dislike it, it's necessary for us to function in this world.

Most NTs and many autistics think that being autistic means that one has poor social skills and lacks empathy. In reality, we have autistic social skills and so have trouble interacting with NTs, but are usually just fine with other autistics. While NT social interaction generally takes the form of intrusive give and take interactions, we do better in parallel. We can be successful with NTs, so long as they are willing to do their half of the work to communicate with us, and we can have trouble interacting with other autistics if they have been trained to pretend to be NT or if we have not been allowed opportunities to interact with our own kind, but as a general rule we're better at interacting with other autistics, just as NTs are better at interacting with other NTs. We're also just fine at empathizing with other autistics, and no more lacking in empathy than neurotypicals. Most normal-brained people have difficulty empathizing with autistics. That's why they bully us, why they think that a particular therapy (ABA) that invalidates who we are and tries to replace us with a neurotypical person is helpful, and why they so often excuse the murder of autistics. (Not saying that all neurotypicals are like that, just that many are.)

We also tend to have 1-3 very intense interests, called perseverations. Mine is autism, specifically autistic advocacy, if you couldn't tell already. *g* These are a good thing, and we need to have time to focus on these interests. Monologuing on them isn't bad, in fact, it's one of the parts of natural autistic interaction. If one can't do that, though, it doesn't mean that they're non-autistic. I'm the same way with sharing my interests through speech, I learned to hide them from the time I was about 8 years old. I just don't consider that a good thing, since I would like to be able to discuss my perseverations in real life and not just online.

Oh, and we tend to have difficulties with spoken communication as well, though some of us are eventually fine with it. We're almost always better with text than with speech and often have trouble with telephones. We have trouble with the figurative language that NTs use, often have trouble with slang, are straightforward in our words, and are often echolalic, meaning that we repeat things that we've heard over and over again.

So far, it seems that autism is genetic - our parents tend to have autistic traits themselves, and we usually have relatives on the autistic spectrum. Autism is not mercury poisoning, and not food allergies. We are more prone to things like allergies than NTs, and we may act differently when those allergies are treated, but we're still just as autistic as we were.

Also, I highly recommend reading all the way through www.gettingthetruthout.org and reading some of the entries in ballastexistenz.autistics.org. You'll both get more information on autism and learn that autistics, even those designated "low-functioning" (I don't believe that functioning levels are useful myself) don't necessarily want to be cured. Autism isn't a tragedy, although it sounds like Toni Braxton perceives it as one.

Answer 2

Autism is classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests in delays of "social interaction, language as used in social communication, or symbolic or imaginative play," with "onset prior to age 3 years," according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The ICD-10 also requires symptoms to "manifest before the age of three years." Autism is often not physiologically obvious, in that outward appearance may not indicate a disorder, and diagnosis typically comes from a complete physical and neurological evaluation. the main characteristics of someone who has Autistic Spectrum Disorders have a range of 3 central symptoms, which classify someone as suffering from what is more generally referred to as Autism. The 3 symptoms are basically impairments in imagination, social communication and social interaction, plus a strong tendency towards repetitive behaviour, although you may observe unusual behaviour.

Answer 3

My sister's children are autistic and she told me (in layman's terms) That instead of learning how to communicate an autistic child may just repeat what is said to them. Or they don't always understand the difference in some things for instance they may be scared of something totally not scary like a chair. Or they may walk straight for a moving vehicle and not be scared at all. It is very trying on the parents because their children have special needs. Parents have to monitor everything their child eats just in case a certain food might make the child have worse days. There are different levels my niece and nephew are high funtioning and still its really hard on my sister and her husband. It is very complicated and there are many levels. I really don't know as much about it as I should. Hope I helped anyway.

Answer 4

It means that he has Autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests in delays of "social interaction, language as used in social communication, or symbolic or imaginative play," usually shows up before age 3, hes special needs.

Answer 5

thats hard.... he needs to be evaluated by a mental health professianal to get a good diagnosis but i wud say that u shud get evaluated so ur mood is more constant... i mean say that to ur friend :) not u