Thursday, April 1, 2010
Censored on Duquesne U. Special Education Professor Ann Huang Creates Mentor Program for Autism Employment
If you have made comments on the Age of Autism article Duquesne U. Special Education Professor Ann Huang Creates Mentor Program for Autism Employment, please copy your comment here, including the date and time you posted at AoA.
Posted at AoA on April 1, 2010 at 12:50pm (EDT)
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of article that AoA needs to publish more of. It highlights actual autism news, spreads awareness and shows how people with autism can be helped.
Reading some of the comments, I have two thoughts. First, those who have autism have difficulty in so-called "normal" society because they just don't get a lot of the social cues. Teaching them these cues and how to interact with non-autistic individuals will help them fit in and get along with others. "Normal" people are mean to those who don't fit in. So mentoring programs like this help give autistic individuals tools to minimize unwanted attention or to get around possible conflicts.
This is not to say that they must fit in or give up any part of their individuality. I agree that the general population also needs to be educated more about autism and how to interact with those on the spectrum. There is still very little that the average person knows about autism beyond the stereotypical image from Rainman or What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Perhaps with more education on all sides, we won't need to worry about "fitting" in.
This is being cross-posted to Silenced by Age of Autism.