people with any type of autism or people who know them- is autism a gift and if so, why?

Question

Even if the person with autism doesn't have a savant ability, autism is still said to be a gift to some people. http://kevinleitch.co.uk/wp/?p=329

Answer 1

Hi:

Yes, my son is High Functioning Autistic. He is mainstreamed in school and does well. Why are these children a gift?

Well for many reasons. Some may be that the courage' strength, the obstacles of functioning in life and society and being accepted are astronomical. We all can learn so much from all disabled children and adults.

These children see life from a whole different perspective than so called "normal" children. With seeing everything different than everyone else they must try that much harder to make their life work for them as each child and every person are different.

To look at my son, you would not know he is autistic at all, we worked day in and day out and had remarkable progress and even now daily I find amazement, wonder, joy in him and his intelligence is just incredible. For instance, he read the dictionary once, now every word he read he knows, knows spelling, meaning and also what page the word was on.

These people are often assumed as dumb. I have never met an autistic person who is dumb. They have had times socially, they have hard times w/ speech, they do have hard times cognitativly (Need him to spell for me), they just need to find their particular information road from their brain thru their bodies to then communicate with everyone and voice the needs.

It's just a different way to cross the river than we all take.

Be blessed by them!

Answer 2

Seeing as how autism, no matter where it is on the spectrum causes the person to have GREAT difficulty communicating, socializing and understanding other people, I imagine most would NOT consider it a gift. I have a friend who has normal intellect, but pretty severe autism. He is almost completely incapable of interacting with me in person. Via letters, however, he does a much better job expressing himself. Even in writing though, there is very little "back and forth" communication. From the years I have spent being his friend, I have come to the conclusion via his words and my observations of him that autism is confusing, isolating, frustrating and makes him feel anxious and depressed a lot of the time. He IS actually a savant in that he has calendar memory. And yet, I believe, it is a useless gift. What's the point in having 1 gift when so much else is missing in your life? It's sad really.

Answer 3

Well you have a tough question. The truth is, to the naked eye, its terrible. Why would someone want to live in their own world, unable to be like everyone else? But the real truth is, its a blessing. Everything g-d does is for a reason, we may not see it immediatly or at all, but there is a reason. Maybe you should say, it could have been worse. Maybe someone you know that has autism was supposed to die? Isnt it better that they are alive even though they are autistic? Really, if someone with autism tries hard, gets enough treatment and therapy, they can almost escape their autism. Its in the hands of g-d. And since it is that way, we should see it as a gift.

Answer 4

Autism is not completely understood, it takes lots of different forms. Some savants are gifted but for some its just a pure disability. We do know the mind processes differently for autistic people and can take them to creative levels.

Answer 5

I do not think people who have family members would consider having autism being classified as being gifted. The person is usually unable to function on a social level with other individuals. They are usually in their own little world and can have violent outbursts at times hurting others who are around them. Also Idiot Savants are gifted in one area such as math or music, or the ability to remember large amounts of data, but are severely retarded in other areas.

This link you posted: The person who posted it is disagreeing that autism is a gift with Sigorney Weaver saying (sic) she thought autism is a gift.

Answer 6

I work with a low-functioning autistic child daily. I am his "shadow". His parents placed him for part of the day in a mainstream classroom where he is supposed to start "acting" normal. He can't hold a pencil, he can't urinate without being prompted. The other children laugh at his attempts to talk. His gift is memorization. He knows practically everyones name in the school, but if you ask him if a particular child is a boy or girl, he has no clue. So, I would have to disagree that autism is a gift. It is painful, heartbreaking and a very difficult battle to fight for the child as well as the parents and workers.

Answer 7

My mother works with autistic children. She loves them so much. She thinks they are wonderful. As soon as she started working at the hospital in our town and anounced that she will be working with autistic children, they were coming out of the woodwork. She has a group that meets once a month and has parties and just a wonderful support center for these people. My son has even gone to some of the parties and loves hanging out with these kids. He says they are fun.
Any special need is considered a gift in my eyes. It is a gift because they are unique.

Answer 8

we should ask them using science

there is a thing where a pager like device buzzes a few times per d. he person writes their mood on a chart

I don't know if near autistics would mark the chart differently or if they have a different definition of: How do you feel

you might get some kind of comparable results asking do you feel better than you do eating a particular piece of candy; if they have that feeling frequently, plus they voluntarily eat candy, that suggests a measure of the frequency with which they appreciating being

another possibility is to do functional MRI on their nucleus accumbens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleus_accumbens known as a pleasure center of the brain then compare that with the range of people

beyond how they feel is the idea of a gift; gifts sometimes suggest a giver or a recipient; a mute mathematician that lacks communication ability might have much pleasure ; compare a normal person with a REM dream, absent communication the idea of that mentation as a gift is peculiar

I guess the mute autistic mathematician has a durable unshared thrill; if the autistic believes they have a benevolent creator then they might say gift

Answer 9

I think the people calling it a gift aren't dealing with it daily. My son is high functioning which is a blessing, but still I cant take him many places without meltdowns. He doesn't understand even by telling him what is expected how to behave. School events for my oldest or family events such as weddings and funerals are ugly.

Answer 10

I think you are way off base and perhaps some people prefer their brand of non-reality. Both my brother and my cousin's son are very intelligent, but I wouldn't wish autism on my worst enemy. Calling it a gift is outrageous. It's a curse.

Also, these crapheads that go on that God does things for a reason should have their brain short-circuited and then tell me that they are thankful. Bunch of cultish nonsense that hurts others.