Joined: 24 Sep 2013 Gender: Male Posts: 27,828 Location: Twin Peaks
19 Dec 2019, 2:01 pm
Wontrle wrote:
In Lawrence, MA, there is a sad murder trial finishing up. A woman is being charged with the murder (via neglect) of her 9 year old autistic son. The boy died from cancer (leukemia), while his mother failed to give him anticancer drugs that were prescribed for an earlier cancer. The descriptions of the boy's behavior are shocking-the child could not talk, was not toilet trained, and behaved like a wild animal.In addition to the autism, the boy had food allergies, and would only eat a few items of snack foods. From what I read, the poor woman was essentially a slave-she had to quit her job to provide 24 hour care for her son. The two were living in anattic apartment, and had no assistance from the boy's father. My question is: to autistic people like this boy ever improve as adults? Would this boy ever be able to live alone as an adult?
magz wrote:
There is a man on this forum who describes his childhood self as "considered a vegetable". He is quite active and smart, though obviously severily disabled. Based on him as an example, some improvement is absolutely possible, for some it may be quite a lot of possible improvement, but don't expect a severily disabled child to grow up to be able to work full time and meet all the "standard" expectations as an adult.
The situation was different for me. I had two parents and an aunt and uncle to look after me. And I was usually pretty docile outside of the usual meltdown issues. I'm not sure how common it is for a severely autistic kid to develop into being closer to moderately autistic. But I have known of a few like me. Then again there are some who stay severely autistic but still make a lot of progress like Carly Fleischmann, who probably writes better than I do. But of course there are others who never really progress and they can be aggressive too.
Such as:
Last edited by EzraS on 19 Dec 2019, 2:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Joined: 24 Sep 2013 Gender: Male Posts: 27,828 Location: Twin Peaks
19 Dec 2019, 2:12 pm
SharonB wrote:
I read an article of an Autistic girl who had little control of her body and could not communicate (so it appeared), until as a teenager somebody figured out she could type ----- then she went on to write books! (She continued to need significant physical support.)
Yeah that's Carly Fleischmann.
But to be honest Carly is probably the exception to the rule.
Yeah that's Carly Fleischmann. But to be honest Carly is probably the exception to the rule.
Thank you for sharing that. Brings tears to my eyes. My instinct is that she's not as much an exception as the world thinks, albeit I am rather (happily) delusional.
Joined: 21 Oct 2019 Age: 68 Gender: Male Posts: 851 Location: Long Island, NY
19 Dec 2019, 11:10 pm
SharonB wrote:
My instinct is that she's not as much an exception as the world thinks, albeit I am rather (happily) delusional.
I have the same hope that Carly's story is of the possibilities with the best support. However, she does have a high IQ which must help a lot. Apparently, she tested as low IQ when young but they tried to educate her anyway.
Sounds like it worked OK. How many "low functioning" autistics are just closed off from the world but actually in good shape inside? The world really may never know.
_________________ Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 134 of 200 Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 72 of 200 You are very likely neurodiverse (Aspie)
19 Dec 2019, 1:04 pm
