Age of Autism editor Dan Olmsted takes on the “Tropic Thunder” controversy by considering the language of autism.
There’s one way to employ the word that I really can’t stand, however — when people with autism are referred to as “autistics.” … Overall, I’m not in favor of turning a condition or a description of a human being into a noun.
Which reminds me of the first story I ever wrote about autism, back in 2002. I’d been a working journalist for about two months, and attempted to tackle the autism epidemic on deadline in about 90 minutes. The result was one-sided and strangely uninformed and … well, I’ve long considered it one of the half-dozen worst stories I’ve done. (Here’s the worst. Let’s all laugh at Sam today!)
Why am I bringing it up?
Two sentences in particular from that story:
Parents of autistics convinced Kartzinel to make a trip to Orange County …
and
Dr. Irene Grant, a Tustin doctor, shadowed Kartzinel as he treated patients, and now works with area autistics.
I got a very diplomatic call the next day (I’d swear I remember it being from Tammie, the story subject, but she doesn’t remember it, so maybe not) letting me know that, well, the story was very nice but it’s considered insensitive to call a child with autism “an autistic.”
In a roundabout way, this is why we’re trying this blog. It’s hard to cover a subject sensitively when you’re writing one or two stories a year on it. Autism is simply too important, and too complex, to write stories like my first one and then abandon until the next deadline story a few months later.
I’ve pasted that first story after the jump. Read it for what it is: hysterical, and hopefully not to be repeated.
A MOM’S CRUSADE // MEDICINE: Tammie Beckstead and other parents are making progress in their quest to educate others about the issues surrounding autism.
Brandon Beckstead doesn’t stand out in a classroom of 9-year-olds. He’s shy, well-behaved and a fan of trains, slapstick comedy and anything Disney.
And he does not stagger around mumbling things like ”Definitely, definitely,” or ”10 minutes to Wapner.”
Brandon is autistic, and he and his mom, Tammie, both of Huntington Beach, are part of an Orange County movement to educate parents, educators and physicians about a disease that Tammie said can be ‘’sheer hell” when mistreated.
”The medical and educational communities try to put a band-aid on the difficult behaviors of an autistic child without asking why it is happening,” said Beckstead, a single mom and board member for Cure Autism Now. ”Parents are just finding out that these issues are something that must be dealt with.”
As many as 6 in 1,000 children develop autism, usually around the age of two, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The developmental disorder can affect everything from speech and social skills to gastrointestinal health, and often varies greatly from patient to patient.
Brandon was 16 months when he began to show speech problems, even reversing most of the progress he’d made in the months before. Over the course of a month, he went from being ”a happy little boy,” his mom said, to one prone to temper tantrums, sleeplessness and babbling.
Beckstead said it was like a computer crashing. ”Most of the information Brandon had learned up to 16 months was suddenly lost and he was trapped without a way to understand or verbalize his confusioin.
”My heart broke into millions of pieces as I watched his frustration every day.”
A pediatrician told Beckstead she wasn’t disciplining him correctly, and suggested she spank her son.
”I was shocked by the ignorance of the medical profession,” Beckstead said.
Now, thanks in part to the work she and other Orange County parents have done to recruit a Florida autism specialist for biannual visits and teach local physicians to diagnose and treat autistic children.
It was from other parents in the county that she learned of Dr. Jerry Kartzinel, a Palm Beach, Fla. physician who specializes in such disorders as autism.
Parents of autistics convinced Kartzinel to make a trip to Orange County, where he treated children out of a hotel room during his two-week stay.
The trips are now biannual, and the focus has shifted to educating county doctors to properly treat autism.
Dr. Irene Grant, a Tustin doctor, shadowed Kartzinel as he treated patients, and now works with area autistics. About 30 doctors attended a lecture Kartzinel gave during his July visit to Newport Beach.
Mary Berry, an Anaheim physician, was at the lecture as a doctor and a mother. Her son, Camden, is a 4-year-old, mild autistic who was misdiagnosed as simply needing speech therapy and special education. She tried her own remedies, with much success, when physicians couldn’t help.
Seeing Kartzinel, she said, was refreshing.
”To hear it presented so comprehensively with a clear protocol was really exciting,” she said. ”It need to be heard by the medical and educational communities.”
Beckstead said Kartzinel turned her son from ”the worst-behaved kid in the district” to a good student and active child.
Despite the speaking ability of a 4-year-old, he goes to school — regular, non-special education — and has non-afflicted friends. And, his mom said, you’d never know he was autistic by looking at him.
”Brandon and other parents wouldn’t be getting the care they need if it wasn’t for many dedicated parents willing to push the envelope,” she said. ”He’s just a normal kid. That’s what’s such a miracle.”
For more information about autism, go to www.asa.org. For local support, go to www.curingjeff.com.
Contact Miller at sammiller@ocregister.com
There are some people who get offended by the term “autistics” and some who strongly prefer it to “person with autism.” There is no more unanimity on this in the autism community, such as it is, than on any other point. Olmsted apparently thinks he knows everything just from talking to a slanted subset. Nothing new there.
Which people are offended by the term autistics? I don’t think it’s autistics. I think it’s their parents. And as parents who aren’t autistic themselves (wink wink), what gives you the right to tell me what I should be offended by? I’m not the slightest bit offended.
Now, “person with autism” is just stupid. Do you call a woman a “person with femaleness”, or a black person a “person with blackness”? No because that’s deprecatory; detracting from their defining characteristic and something -I might add- they may be proud of. Autism IS my defining characteristic. I wouldn’t say I’m proud of it because I think pride is only appropriate if it’s an accomplishment you worked for but I sure as heck am not ashamed or embarrassed by it.
So yeah, we get it, we’re people. *We* are not the ones who need the constant reminder of our humanity.