That girl from America's next top model.

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yes. Sounds like an aspie trying to hold it together.

Hey Kitsy,

The Adderall she takes is for her ADHD. It helps a person with Attention Deficit Disorder be able to concentrate more and focus. It makes a huge difference in helping me with my ADHD (which I have in addition to Asperger's).

I think it was very brave of her to undertake what she did. I've always liked acting myself, but some of the demands are so intense, it's very difficult and I would think runway modeling would be even harder in alot of ways.

Is it as harsh as ritalin? Do you know? I wonder what Heather looks like through "normal" eyes.

as harsh as ritalin? you've got it backwards there, kitsy. Ritilan is like candy compared to Adderall.

wow, makes ritalin seem like candy. Thanks for clearing that up. I'm not really up to date on pharmaceutical drugs.

I am so sick of those stereotypes about AS. Someone doesn't have this, someone doesn't have that so therefore he/she can't have AS. So sick of it. We're all different. Some are more milder than others and some are more severe than others.
From the clips I have seen, she seemed normal to me, I could hardly find any quirks in here except she was by herself but just because it was hard to tell she has it doesn't mean she doesn't have it. I think it's great she is doing it. She is showing the world about aspies can be social and they can do great things and they are not bad people. The show showed people aspies can be social and make friends and not have any of those autism stereotypes. Only stereotype she had was drawing because I used to see aspies and drawings all the time mentioned in books and see them online and it always bugged me every time I read about aspies doing art because it sounded like art was an aspie thing and I have known NTs who are great artists too. There were great artists in my high school and they were NTs. Well some had dyslexia and I read dyslexics tend to be good artists too.
I have good mental health and have AS. Wait NM, it's not my real diagnoses. I was just put in that category to stop my school from putting me in a class with violent kids because PDD-NOS isn't a real diagnoses and autism would just give them the power to place me in that class.

I think maybe the reason why it was hard for me to see the AS in Heather was because I only saw parts of the show on here and now the whole thing. I had missed it because it never occurred to me to come in this thread till tonight.
I'm still reading this thread and will read more when I wake up.

Spokane_Girl I'm in agreement with you in the fact that 2 many people, including the professionals think we are all the same. When in fact we are all individuals just like everyone else, so when giving advice or diagnosing us it would help for them to remember that. Aspergers is just the way I'm wired; we are all different and have different symptoms Aspies and NT's.

With a condition like Asperger it is exceptionally hard because quite often no 2 people are the same. We may have some of the same traits, but we are all individuals in our selves, different personalities, different circumstances and each effected differently.

Far to often its the associated conditions we need help with, but the NT's continue to blame our Autism Spectrum Disorders for everything! Like with Heather she takes Adderall for her ADHD, not for Aspergers, or you could say she has a Syndrome Mix of symptoms, personally I think a lot of the associated conditions are part and parcel of being on the spectrum...

I am quoting one of the studies I have read (translating from Russian as closely as possible to the original):

"Their speech is characterized by insufficient expressiveness /- i.e. what you termed "monotonous"/, unusual pace and rhythm, fading or sing-song intonation. In general, it is these prosodic features that "betray" an adolescent's autism, and indicate that his or her speech is not emotionally addressed at the interlocutor and insufficiently intended for communication. /.../ Autistic adolescents take less notice of their interlocutor's gestures and facial expression than their ordinary peers, even though many of them begin to use gestures themselves /.../ Our experience has shown that, with the aid of a psychotherapist, /ABA or similar methods had nothing to do with the therapeutic techniques they used, they don't even seem to believe it to be a valid method/ autistic adolescents are capable of making significant progress in orienting their communication toward a real listener, as well as in developing their speech, and even in overcoming such difficulties peculiar to autism as failute to understand the context or subcontext of an uttering or lacking a sense of humor." (O.S. Nikolskaja, E. R. Bajenskaja, M. M. Libling, I. A. Kostin, M. J. Vedenina, A. V. Arshatskij, A. V. Arshatskaja, 2005)

I could go on quoting.

From this and the other books I've read it looks like "monotonous voice“ is a rather inadequate way of describing autistic speech patterns. It's more complex than that, and is more about having an intonation that is different from ordinary than having no intonation whatsoever. Out of the many children they worked with, none actually spoke in a completely monotonous manner. The prosodic patterns also apparently varied depending on the severity of their autism and their individual personalities.

It is also stressed throughout the study that, as autistic people mature (provided they are given adequate support) they can and do learn new communication strategies. As they do so, they do start to act „less autistic“. For instance, as their speech becomes more communication-oriented and intended for the listener, it becomes more expressive and conventional in its intonation; they gradually learn to make eye contact and use gestures more successfully; etc.

So that the assumption that one cannot change the inflections or intonation of one's voice is evidently erroneous.

The study was based on practical results (even though the findings of many other studies, both Russian and foreign, were also reviewed and used as a background). These people have worked practically with a large number of autistic children and continued working with many of them well into late adolescence, so they know what they are talking about.

It‘s not the only book that states the possibility of gradually learning non-autistic types of communication, either.

Last edited by ixochiyo_yohuallan on 13 Dec 2007, 1:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I don't really see where it says someone will appear "normal" like the individual appears in the aforementioned video.

I throw sing-song, peculiar tone and what have you under monotonous (it's all the same thing); it's all lacking in inflection. Obviously, one can be forced to change and adapt to their environment with therapy (see: ABA), it's like using a stick to walk if you're blind; taking on the persona of the professionals and how they interact is mimicking, not seeing. But that's splitting hairs.

She's obviously a good mimicker if she does indeed have AS; I've seen several individuals with Asperger's outside in a therapy setting, none were how she appeared (some were verbose, but in no way did they appear "normal").

I can use gestures, I can smile and wave my hands around to express non-verbal communication; it's kinda hard to do those whilst making eye contact and continuing to talk (impossible over here). In no way will I appear normal, "eccentric" is an adequate term for how most appear.

I keep having to remember the winner is not the best one, it is the best one they had to work with.

and anyway, Saleisha had worked with them for some time and never got beyond the 'commercial' stage. It's their show, I suppose they can chose whom they please. I enjoyed it this year, Heather made it all worth while. Thanks Heather!

Merle

PS to danielismyname. Over the years I have perfected what I call my "NT Mask". At the expenditure of incredible energy, I can perfectly fake it for up to 20 minutes at a time, get a bit of down time and then put on the 'NT Mask' again and run through all the social miming w/ sound again and again as needed.
When I watched Heather through the series and then on the season marathon all in one day, I watched her use that technique, but being young ( I have had thirty years more than she to perfect the "mask") and 'on' all the time, she was showing cracks in her adaptations. I so wanted to comfort her by telling her that there was nothing wrong with her acting NT that twenty or thirty years wouldn't cure!
It's acting, because below the surface I am dealing with all my normal reactions. I consider it a personal victory when I don't laugh outright in their faces at the tripe and drivel they expect me to be actually interested in!

all the best,
Merle

Yes, absolutely. I'm no diagnostician, but in watching the show religiously (as I'm embarrassed to admit) I did see autistic traits in Heather. One thing that my mom thought was especially like me was the few occasions where Heather became upset. Usually, this happened when things didn't quite go the way she might have expected (like with the shower or when there was no bed for her). It's typical for people on the spectrum to react badly to those situations, and I know that's certainly something I struggle with. I admit that in watching the show I did think Heather seemed relatively "mild", but it's all a spectrum. I have sometimes wondered whether I was misdiagnosed because I don't quite fit the AS stereotypes or I feel too "normal" somehow, but my parents, boyfriend, and a psychologist who specializes in AS are all convinced I'm on the spectrum nevertheless. I'm glad that Heather showed that people on the spectrum may not be "obviously" so, but still have certain issues to deal with.

Wow, some people are sure asses. Doubting someone's diagnoses just because they weren't aspie enough in the video or just because someone had something good and you didn't. Look at Temple Grandin, I have seen videos about her on youtube and she seemed very normal to me and she is autistic. Does that mean she isn't autistic just because she lives in a house, is a college professor, designed animal live stocks, and is real successful. And me, I live in a small apartment with low income working a low paying job and I doubt I be very successful while Heather is going to school and I can see she is going to succeed real well and maybe live in a house and make real good money.

Amazing how some people need to actually see them in videos or hear them speak just to believe their diagnoses.


Gee I wonder what people would think of me if they saw me on TV or heard me speaking.

Sometimes I think this is all about being jealous and it makes people feel good about themselves when they say someone isn't AS or on the spectrum just because they are succeeding real well or got something they never got or never will. I can start saying about aspies who are succeeding and going to school or have great paying jobs, don't have AS because they went to college, have a business, did something great like wrote books, been on TV, etc and I never had those things or succeeded in school because of my damn learning disability. I always had to get extra help with my school work and even have some of it modified.

You never know just how you look through other people's eyes.

-Butthole Surfers

It'd be far better to argue the point in contention rather than resorting to ad hominem attacks if you wish to be taken seriously.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoNErsJNPzw[/youtube]

Temple Grandin was brought up. This video illustrates many of the adaptations that she was able to make in order to be an effective public speaker. She has quite a bit of proper inflection in her voice, appropriate gesturing, even pace, she seeks out eye contact with her audience, etc.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSwbxNDqIO0[/youtube]

This video features a phone conversation with Ms. Grandin. She is incredibly articulate and sounds just like an NT. She sounds far, far better than I do, and I made it all the way through school without ever having been diagnosed.

Temple Grandin herself says that as a child she would have been considered a low functioning autistic! Here we have living proof that people on the spectrum are able to present themselve in front of the media in a way that appears quite normal and well-spoken.